The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

The dominant theory of human nature in modern intellectual life is based on the doctrines of the blank slate, the noble savage, and the ghost in the machine; these doctrines are being challenged by the sciences of the mind, brain, genes, and evolution. Behavioral geneticists have found that all behavioral traits are partially heritable—challenging the doctrine of the blank slate. Evolutionary psychologists and anthropologists have underscored the ubiquity of conflict in human affairs— challenging the doctrine of the noble savage. Modern science has shown that we have every reason to believe that when the physiological activity of the brain stops, the person ceases to exist—a direct challenge to the doctrine of the ghost in the machine. Even if there are dangers in embracing too strong a doctrine of human nature, there are also dangers in denying human nature. Human nature is a topic of perennial interest because everyone has a theory about it. All of us have to anticipate how people will react to their surroundings , and so we all need theories, implicit or explicit, about what makes people tick. Much depends on our theory of human nature. In our private lives we use it to win friends and influence people, to manage our relationships, to bring up our children , and to control our own behavior. Its assumptions about learning guide our policies in education; its assumptions about motivation guide our policies in law and politics. Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, describes the doctrines that underpin today' s dominant secular theory of human nature and how advances in the sciences of the mind, brain, genes, and evolution are challenging these doctrines. Pinker argues that the influential blank slate doctrine is flawed on many levels and gives rise to the modern denial of human nature.