The Blank Slate

In The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, linguist Stephen Pinker makes some strong claims regarding the nature vs. nurture debate. He argues that all people and all cultures shared certain behaviors. Also, a large fraction of the variation in human behavior is heritable: you resemble your parents because you inherit their genes. (As a minor irritation, during much of the book Pinker intertwines those two premises, which involve rather different evidence and implications.)

Much of the book rebuts the Blank Slate theory, in which people are solely influenced by their environment. Pinker tears apart two other theories that he associates with the Blank Slate: the Noble Savage belief that man was much better before civilization corrupted him and the Ghost in the Machine conception of the mind existing in a separate sphere than the body.

The intensity of Pinker’s arguments was surprising, though I agreed with many of his claims. His style reminded me of the way liberal books, articles, and blogs attack conservative actions and theories. Pinker perceives the academic battle between the Blank Slate defenders and his evolutionary biology / intrinsic nature views quite seriously. I was often wary of his straw-man portrayal of the Blank Slate advocates, and his personal attacks on some of them seemed irrelevant when weighing their competing claims.

The highlight of the book was the chapter on children, which every parent should read, emphasizing these three laws of behavioral genetics:

• The First Law: All human behavioral traits are heritable.
• The Second Law: The effect of being raised in the same family is smaller than the effect of the genes.
• The Third Law: A substantial portion of the variation in complex human behavioral traits is not accounted for by the effects of genes or families.

In other words, as long as parents don’t abuse their kids, their influence of their children’s lives is rather limited. Parents don’t need to worry so much about doing a perfect job, despite widespread child-rearing advice claiming otherwise.

Pinker did an enormous amount of research in a wide range of areas and dives into a variety of controversial topics. Some of his emphasis reflects his academic milieu, such as his hostility towards Marxist thought, which isn’t a factor in my political world. And I’d like to read an opposing viewpoint for balance, since I’m skeptical of his caricatures of opposing theories. Still, I learned a lot from The Blank Slate, and he gives you a lot to ponder.