Steven Pinker: Human nature and the blank slate

http://www.ted.com Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate argues that all humans are born with some innate traits. Here, Pinker talks about his thesis, and why some people found it incredibly upsetting.

• Category

  Education

[fringeelements]

Yes on Gould's crappy and bypassed interpretation of Ernst Mayer's punctuated equilibrium, and yes on his parade of fossils, straw men and outright fraud in the case of lying about Samuel George Morton in mismeasure of man.

[CharlottesInterweb]

How about you give Erling some tips since you're such an expert in that department. Not the sucking, mind you: the getting it up the (Aeli)anus.

[Rice Kale]

Well define chance events...

[FreaqyFrequency]

That doesn't speak highly to Žižek's understanding of Pinker's position, nor to his intellectual integrity.

[Matthew Richards]

Slavoj Zizek describes this man as "plainly stupid".

[mxzysptlik]

I absolutely agree with you. I think political correctness is a terrible idea.

[StaticLightbulb]

We shouldn't be adopting ideas about psychology and human behaviour that are unfounded or actually contrary to the evidence just because they are more politically gratifying than the alternative.

[putittogether]

Ladies and Gentlemen I present you a Libtard, in all his ignorance and stupidity.

[nonchalantd]

That's true, unless people find ways around their limitations, which is a another issue. For example, blind people have graduated from professional school because they can read braille. Without the invention of braille, this might not have been possible.

[sn3192]

awesome talk

every talk of his has been an eye-opening fest of reason!

aspiring to be a psychologist myself and this guy is such a role model

[sn3192]

you mean SPECIAL parenting, as opposed to average, can beat genetic odds? of course environment can and does guide the genes in their expression, but genetic limitations cannot be overcome by any environment.