A Good Book - The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven PinkerWayne Hall, Vice Provost for Faculty Development |
 The title of Steven Pinker’s most recent book, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, will initially mislead its readers. We look in the wrong direction in part because we expect titles to identify an author’s position in a positive way. In part, too, however, we will likely find ourselves already pre-committed to some version of the blank-slate theory of human nature and thus inclined to misread an author who seeks more than anything else to demolish such theories.
Steven Pinker, The Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, ranges across numerous disciplinary boundaries as he reviews the implications of recent scientific advances in the study of the brain, the mind, genetics, and evolutionary psychology. In finding the origins of human nature within processes of evolution, and in explaining consciousness through biological theories, Pinker will challenge many of his readers, including those who believe in intelligent design, or who look to well-crafted social programs as a guaranteed cure for problems such as poverty or crime, as well as those who fear that these scientific discoveries will lead to grim, mechanistic determinism. Pinker questions, “Is this the bright future promised by the sciences of human nature – it wasn’t me, it was my amygdala? Darwin made me do it? The genes ate my homework?” (176). Pinker counters such concerns by finding that other qualities – love, integrity, altruism, a sense of justice – have also emerged as products of human evolution. Moreover, he argues that our various attempts to improve our world will have a greater chance of success to the extent that we begin with a scientifically informed understanding of human nature. In this context, biological theories of consciousness have major implications for us as educators who seek those classroom strategies that will give our students the best chance for academic success. It is fitting, then, that Pinker’s Web site, http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/, contains links for “teaching” right alongside links for “research” and “articles.” For Pinker, “human nature” is about “learning.” |
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