The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

Steven Pinker

Oct 2019 · Penguin · Narrated by Victor Bevine

About this audiobook

Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

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

'Brilliant ... enjoyable, informative, clear, humane' New Scientist

'Startling ... This is a breath of air for a topic that has been politicized for too long' Economist

©2003 Steven Pinker (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Ratings and reviews

I listened to the audiobook and the book really makes a mockery of the current politically correct nonsensical discussion regarding gender differences. Picker proves via science that me and women are very different. The book is a good gift to anyone who blindly thinks males and females are social constructions rather than biologically different.

Great review about the human nature vs nurture topic. Showing us that much more about humans is determined by genetics than we would like to believe

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About the author

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'.