Note: This is the fifth and last of a series of static web page redirects from previous book reviews I have posted elsewhere. Wizard
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Native Canadian scientist Steven Pinker wrote this book sometime in 2002 and was was featured in a Borders Book store which I happened to be in sometime in late 2003. Normally I do not go for science books (especially psychology books!) these days, despite the fact that I work in computers. Reading anything more about science than I already have to simply makes my head hurt. Nonetheless, intrigued by the book cover, and having spent a good thirty minutes or so having read through about 20 random pages of content, I decided to plunk down my hard earned dosh and see what the good Professor had to say about blank slates and human nature.
The first thing I had to learn about Pinker is that he subscribes to what is known as evolutionary psychology, meaning that he is someone who studies human behavior from the standpoint of evolutionary development. More precisely, Dr. Pinker is a professor of language psychology and how it is acquired by children. The dust cover jacket also describes research he has done in the field of visual cognition. Moreover, in reading this book (I had never heard of Steven Pinker before reading this book, even though he was already an academic celebrity before this book via having written other such tomes as The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works) one cannot but help noticing that Pinker is well aware of developments in a number of other fields of scientific endeavor, such as genetics, ethnology, and anthropology.
Pinker also is well aware of the political pitfalls and minefields with which the research of human behavior (particularly the study of human behavior via evolutionary psychology) is sown. Indeed The Blank Slate is riddled up and down with war stories of various academics having experienced public crucifixion from others who have (purposefully or not) vilified their writings or research. Some of this outrage comes from people who hadn't read what it was that the academic had to say, but Pinker also makes it clear that quite a bit of what various academics have had to put up with has come from other academics and interested groups whose ideas and ideology are under severe intellectual assault from Pinker and fellow evo - psych researchers.
At 434 pages long, along with a list of human universals observed by academic D.E. Brown, 27 pages of footnotes and 28 pages of references, Pinker's opus is not an easy book to get through. However Pinker makes the going quite a bit easier by dividing The Blank Slate into six parts. At the beginning of each section, Pinker devotes 1- 3 pages that explain what it is that he is about out to write about. I love this style of writing. Pinker writes clearly, sensibly, and goes through quite a bit of trouble to make sure that the book stays on track. And to belabor the point, it is important that a tome that sets out to destroy such cherished beliefs as that we are Blank Slates, that we are inhabited by Ghosts in Machines, or that we are all Noble Savages (the three mainstay ideologies that exist that proport to explain how it is that we behave) stay on track.
Do you want just one example (out of many, by the way) of the angry intensity that can be unleashed by the issues that evolutionary psychology raises? Then try this: In chapter 18 of The Blank Slate, whose subject is human gender, Pinker tells the tale of biologist Randy Thornhill and anthropologist Craig Palmer, who in the year 2000 jointly wrote a book entitled A Natural History of Rape. It seems that one premise of the book (full disclosure, I haven't read the book) is that a big reason why men rape women has to do with the idea that rapes are committed by men as a reproductive strategy. As one can imagine, this premise brought down more agony on the field of evolutionary psychology than it had in years - and that's saying quite a bit.
Nonetheless, Pinker makes it clear that it is important to air this out since he subsequently points out that current political and social sensibilities that have been around since the 1970's are that rape has nothing to do with sex - it's all about power, baby. Many of you have probably heard some arguments that run along the lines of, "rape is part of a male dominated society's means for keeping women down." Pinker point out that such arguments fall flat on their faces in the light that 1) men who attempt to rape women try do so in secret, 2) men who are discovered to have committed rape are usually deeply despised and 3) men who are discovered to be rapists will have to face the wrath of the woman's father and brothers. So much for the idea that a rapist commits rape on behalf of all males in a society in an effort to keep the women down and in their place.
To return to the book in general, the six sections that Pinker divides his book into are
1) An explanation on how The Blank Slate became the dominant theory of human nature and behavior in modern intellectual life. Also included here are examinations behind the rise of The Noble Savage and the Ghost in the Machine.
2) Subsequently, Pinker then describes how newer views of human nature are challenging these long held views and talks about the disquiet that has been provoked by modern day findings.
3) In a part of the book that is a bit difficult, Pinker sets out to deal with the fears which might arise from viewing human nature through the lens of evolutionary psychology, such as human nihilism, social inequality & fairness, and Determinism.
4) Pinker then strives to show how newer views of human nature can provide either complement, or provide deeper insights into human behavior. Included are discussions on topics like how people make economic decisions and how they treat people based on their genetic or familial relation to themselves.
5) In the part which I found to be the most fun to read, Pinker then shows how new ideas can shed light into socially controversial issues, including politics, child rearing, violence, feminism, personal choices, about enjoyment of the arts, and other sundry topics. I particularly loved his writing regarding the so - called "crisis in the arts" in the 20th - and 21st centuries, and his treatment of how people perceive art (and the artists who create art) in all of its forms.
6) Pinker ends his book by informing readers that they should not worry so much about the dismissal of old concepts like The Blank Slate, et.al.
Along the way, Pinker makes it quite clear that even though we may well be hard wired for certain behaviors through genetics, that in no way morally or normatively excuses people from behaving or committing acts that are intolerable. For example, a killer may well be equipped with a brain whose areas which help to inhibit violent behavior, but that fact does not excuse the fact that the killer killed someone. Also, Pinker goes into some depth about topics like how much knowledge we may be able to cull out of cracking the human genome and how much behavior we might be able to attribute to our genes. Pinker also tells many stories, both silly and horrible, that have been perpetrated by man against his fellow man, all in the name of thinking of people as Blank Slates, Noble Savages, or Ghosts in Machines.
I am not someone who is terribly interested in analyzing human behavior to death. Leave that to the thousands of female undergraduate students lurking around all of the college campuses in this country and to women in general. This book, however, is a first rate study for people who might be interested in what the frontiers of human behavioral research are revealing. The breadth of the book, because it delves into such topics like genetics, ethnology, brain development, language, and social responses to human behavior, is astonishing and the fact that Pinker organizes his topics so well makes the book a true pleasure to read. To end this poor review of this fascinating book, I can certainly say that I learned a thing or two! You might get upset over the idea that human behavior can partly be explained by our human evolution, but the next time you find yourself in the throes of some powerful emotional matter in your own life, it may well be because of what we came from as humans.
The Mighty Wizard gives this book a 9.5 out of 10 - go buy it and prepare to wrestle with a stimulating read!
Posted by The Mighty Wizard at December 26, 2007 02:06 PM