The Blank Slate - Definition and Overview

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, released in 2002, is a book by Steven Pinker arguing against tabula rasa models of psychology, claiming that the human mind is shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations. Pinker mostly presents historical evidence for his claim.

Criticisms

In an entry titled "Talking to Steven Pinker" (http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_echidneofthesnakes_archive.html#110648035544834732), the author of a feminist weblog criticizes Pinker for relying on research done by right-wing groups, such as the anti-feminist Independent Women's Forum's study of the wage gap in gender. The author also accuses him of ignoring peer-reviewed academic research on the topic and wrongly claiming academics are too afraid to study the topic. According to one commenter, "When Pinker uses evidence from economics, he only includes two mainstream economists, both of whom lean to the right. All the other references he uses are to work done by rightwing think tanks. He fails to discuss what most economists would regard as the core research in the economics of discrimination, and he indeed implies that economists have never addressed the possibility that the gender wage gap might have multiple causes." [1] (http://www.haloscan.com/comments.php?user=atrios&comment=110649652378883001#2354606)

The Vol. 11 #2 2004 Skeptic Magazine also contains a critical review of the book.

External links

• Meet the Flintstones (http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/~swb24/reviews/Pinker.htm) by Simon Blackburn, a critical review of The Blank Slate

This psychology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it (http://www.wordiq.com/definition/The_Blank_Slate).