The Blank Slate
The Modern Denial of Human
Nature
Steven Pinker
Tacit Theory of Human Nature
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Behavior controls human beings thoughts
and beliefs
Base our thoughts of human nature on
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Generalizations
Assumptions that everyone is like ourselves
What experts tell us to believe
Origins of the Theories of Human
Nature
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Religion: Judeo-Christian theory
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Believers
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Based on events that occurred in the Bible
Mind is an immaterial substance
Mind continues to exist after the body die
Popular among residents of the United States
Non-believers
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Intellectuals
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No evidence
Believe in the Blank Slate
Official Theories
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The Blank Slate—John Locke
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The mind is clear of ideas and beliefs
Molded by the environment and experiences
Each experience shapes who an individual
becomes
By changing the one’s environment and
experience an individual can be shaped into a
different person
Official Theories
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The Noble Savage—Rousseau
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Humans are basically good
Evil is the result of civilization
Opposing views
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Thomas Hobbes
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Humans have a tendency to create war with each other
Avoid it by surrendering to a sovereign person
How it affects our daily lives
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Respect natural things
Question things that are man-made
Official Theories
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The Ghost in the Machine—Rene Descartes
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Mind and body are different
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Body is divisible
Mind is indivisible
Mind and body are combined until death
At death the mind continues to live
Cannot question the existence of our mind because
by doing so, our minds exist
Can question the existence of our body because we
can imagine ourselves as a spirit
Philosophy
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No respect
Plays an important role in society
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Example
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2001, George W. Bush decided not to fund
embryonic stem cell research
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Reason: By extracting embryos, scientist must destroy
them
Dilemma: Argument that the soul develops at conception
 By extracting embryos, considered to be a form of
murder
Modern Day Social Sciences and
Enlightenment Philosophy
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Social sciences
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Locke’s “Blank Slate” theory/Tabula Rasa
Society impressed ideas on blank slate
Learning is associationism
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Process inscribing ideas/sensations on blank slate
Appearing in succession, become associated with
each other
Blank Slate= Standard Social Science Model
Psychology and the Social
Sciences
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Discount instinct and evolution
Focus= society
Differing opinions on study of mental
entities (desires, feelings, ideas)
Banned in behavioral psychology
 Studied in terms of society with rest of social
sciences
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Behavioral Psychology
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Developed by John Watson
Locke’s associationism into conditioning
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Stimulus/Response
Punishment/ reward associations
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Affect future behavior characteristics (ease, frequency,
cessation)
Mental entities= subjective, immeasurable
Independent of biology
Utopic mentality
Behavioral Psychology
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Rarely prescribed to now
Modern psychology and neuroscience:
Associationism
 Studying of animals interchangeably
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Still don’t account for instinct
The Other Social Sciences
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Culture and society create individuals
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Humans endowed with the equal mental
faculties
Differences are a result of culture
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Use of faculties necessary to survival
Doctrine super organism
Individual unimportant
 Individual ‘mental entities’ result of culture
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‘Sui Generis’= Culture explained in terms of culture
The Ghost in the Machine and
Silly Putty
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Utopic mentality
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‘mind arbiter of destiny’
‘We’ mold one another
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But aren’t ‘we’ ‘silly putty’ too???
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(awww….how sad…..what will we do?)
Seek Therapy (if you haven’t done so
already)
Cognitive Science
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The study of the mind through empirical,
scientific methods
First Idea
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The mental world can be understood in physical
terms through the concepts of information,
computation, and feedback
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Every action is a string of patterns operating in the
brain
World chess champion Garry Kasparov vs. Deep
Blue
“Electric Brains”—reasoning, intelligence,
imagination, and creativity are all physical processes
called information processing
Second Idea
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The mind cannot be a blank slate because then it
would have the ability to learn or apply knowledge
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The ability to absorb information and interpret its meaning
must be innate
Humans have basic software or “standard equipment”
Jerry Fodor
 all concepts are innate (even “camera” and “lampshade”)
Naon Chomsky
 Children “grow” language
Rumelhart, McClelland, Elman, Bater
 Built a basic computer and put as much software as possible
into it
Third Idea
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An infinite range of behavior can occur all
dependent on the combinatorial programs
found in the mind
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Combinations of words are infinite
Language obeys rules and patterns
The number of thought and intentions is
infinite
Fourth Idea
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Universal mental mechanisms can exist
despite variations found in different cultures
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Different cultures are actually all very similar
All cultures have language
Ease of children to acquire language without
training
 Ifaluk song vs. Western anger
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Fifth Idea
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The mind is a complex system with many
interacting parts
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Physical portrayals of emotion are universal
Affects programs for physical emotions are
learned
Neuroscience
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How the brain processes thought and emotions
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Every thought, feeling, dream, and intention
originates as physiological activity in the brain
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The effects of damage to the brain
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Phineas Gage
Gassaniga and Sperry
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Severance of left and right hemispheres
Paul Broca
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Fold and wrinkles of the brain have a
recognizable arrangement
Genes and prenatal development
influence the anatomy of the brain
Variations in the brain structure lead to
variations in behavior
Acquisition of knowledge causes changes
in brain structure
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Behavioral Genetics
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How genes effect behavior
DNA contains all potential ability to think, learn,
and feel
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Common chimps vs. Bonobos
Identical Twins vs. Virtual Twins
Scientists hold genes responsible for half of behavior
Evolutionary Psychology
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The study of phylogenetic history and adaptive
functions of the mind
Adaptations are any trait which facilitate the
continuation of the species
Evolution is not for the greater good
How do positive traits evolve?
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Beauty = physical health and fertility
Sympathy, gratitude, guilt, and anger = cooperation
Proximate vs. Ultimate causes
Donald Brown and the Universal
People
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Hundreds of traits are cross-cultural
Attack of the Noble Savage
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False stories about tribes that had never heard of
war, violence, or conflict
South American and New Guinean tribes
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10-60% of males killed in warfare
Brown includes conflict, rape, revenge, jealousy,
dominance, and male coalitional violence as universal
traits
Conflict resolution is also universal
Critical Review
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Interesting and
Informative Points
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Philosophy influences
society
Silly Putty
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Weak Case and
Confusing Points
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The author does not
seem to represent
opposing arguments
clearly
Speaks little of
dualism, and then
expands on how
machines and humans
are not alike