The Blank Slate
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  • Published: 5 June 2003
  • ISBN: 9780140276053
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $30.00

The Blank Slate

Denying Human Nature in Modern Life

Formats & editions
Paperback
5 Jun 2003
EBook
5 Jun 2003
Audiobook
31 Oct 2019
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Steven Pinker's landmark defence of human nature

Recently many people have assumed that we are blank slates shaped by our environment. But this denies the heart of our being: human nature. Violence is not just a product of society; male and female minds are different; the genes we give our children shape them more than our parenting practices. To acknowledge our innate abilities, Pinker shows, is not to condone inequality, but to understand the very foundations of humanity.
  • Published: 5 June 2003
  • ISBN: 9780140276053
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $30.00
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About the author

Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is an experimental cognitive scientist. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won many prizes for his research, teaching, and his eleven books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Enlightenment Now. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, one of Foreign Policy's 'World's Top 100 Public Intellectuals' and Time's '100 Most Influential People in the World Today'.

http://stevenpinker.com

portrait photo of Steven Pinker

Also by Steven Pinker

The Sense of Style
Enlightenment Now
The Better Angels of Our Nature
Rationality
Learnability and Cognition, new edition
The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television
The Stuff of Thought
See all

Praise for The Blank Slate

A passionate defence of the enduring power of human nature ... both life-affirming and deeply satisfying

Tim Lott, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

Brilliant ... enjoyable, informative, clear, humane

New Scientist

If you think the nature-nurture debate has been resolved, you are wrong ... this book is required reading

Literary Review

An original and vital contribution to science and also a rattling good read

Matt Ridley, Sunday Telegraph