Notes from ‘The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature’ (Pinker, 2016)

Pinker, S. (2016). The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. New York, NY: Viking.

Preface

The conviction that humanity can be socially engineered led to some of the greatest atrocities (p. xvi – xvii)

Part 1

Blank slate: The idea that the human mind has no structure and it can only be influenced by society or ourselves (p. 2)

Chapter 1

1. John Locke is ascribed the idea tabula rasa. He came up with the idea as a reaction to those who thought man was born with an innate idea of concepts. (p.5).
2. Locke’s counter-idea was empiricism with focus on building ideas from experience. By implication, this meant that nobody (royals and nobles) was a custodian of wisdom. Everybody learns from experience (p.5).
3. The noble savage arises from some blend of Hobbes and Rousseau who posited that humans are by nature savages and institutions and society have some form of civilizing effect on human nature (p.8).
4. “Ghost in the machine” arose from Rene Descartes’ refusal to accept mechanistic explanation of behavior which would undermine freewill. For Descartes, there have to be a mind controlling behavior (p.9).
5. Empiricism = Blank Slate; Romanticism = Noble Savage; Dualism = Ghost in the machine (p.10)

Chapter 2

1. Pinker’s critique of behaviorism was for the flavor that only focused on event behavior (i.e., the variety of John B. Watson) (p.19)
2. Pinker claims behaviorists seek to explain behavior without acknowledging genetics or evolutionary history (p.20).
3. Pinker claims strict behaviorism is dead in psychology (p.21)
4. Franz Boas posited that differences in behavior doesn’t come from their physical or genetic make up but from culture. He believed everyone has the same mental capabilities – even though cultures are different (p.22-23)
5. Pinker argues that in the Black Slate paradigm, society is reified and blamed for peoples’ bad actions (p.26).

Chapter 3

1. Consilience is the unification of knowledge (p.30)
2. 5 contributions of the cognitive revolution to explaining the mind:
3. Information, computation and feedback grounds the physical world in the mind (p.31)
   • A blank slate doesn’t do anything; the mind does things; therefore, the mind cannot be a blank slate (p.34)
   • A wide range of behavior can emerge from the limited programs in the mind (p.36)
   • All humans run on the same mental software that enables us learn the peculiarities of our different situations or cultures (p.37)
   • The mind is the complex system with many interacting parts with different agendas/goals (p.39)
4. Citing evidence using brain tissue studies of Albert Einstein, gay men, convicted murders, Pinker argues that some differences in behavior is not totally due to learning from the environmental culture (p.44)
5. Identical twins (living together or apart) test similarly on almost every trait. Whereas, kids of the same age who are adopted and raised from infancy in the same household tend to ne dissimilar. This may suggest that differences in mind come from difference in guess (p.47)
6. Pinker provided studies demonstrating that both behavioral tendencies and actual behavior may be inheritable (p.50)
7. Pinker argues that humans’ minds was an adaptation favored by natural selection (p.53).
8. Proximal cause = The mechanism; Ultimate/final cause: the adaptive rationale (p.54)

Chapter 4

1. An analysis of innate mental capabilities isn’t an alternative to the explanatory power of learning and culture, but an attempt to explain the mechanisms underpinning those other processes. (p.60)
2. Theory of mind: A mind that can infer what another’s goals are (p.61)
3. “When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other” – Eric Hoffer (p.63)
4. Culture is simply accumulated local wisdom (p.63)
5. The social reality in a group depends on the cognitive abilities of the individuals who make up the group (p.65)
6. Four levels of analyzing mental life: (a) Function (in the evolutionary sense); (b) Real-time mechanism; (c) Development at the individual level; (d) Development at the species level (p.70)

Chapter 5

1. Pinker doesn’t see learning making changes in the brain as a big deal (p.85-87)
2. Pinker also uses a wide range of evidence to demonstrate how parts of the brain can shape themselves without sensory input (p.97)
3. The number of genes in a genome has nothing to do with the level of complexity the organization expresses in behavior (p.100)

Part 2

Chapter 6

1. Richard Herrnstein’s controversial 1971 paper: As the proportion of variance in social studies explained by non-genetic factors go down, the proportion explained by genetic factors (e.g, intelligence, talent) will go up. (p.107)
2. People interpreted the Hernstein study as implying that blacks were less intelligent than whites (p.107)
3. Determinism (math): A system whose prior states cause subsequent states with certainty; Determinism (social sciences): people have a tendency to act in a particular way in certain circumstances. Pinker doesn’t believe in determinism as used in social sciences (p.113)
4. A gene doesn’t always cause a particular behavior and it’s not only the cause of that behavior. Rather it increases the probability of a particular behavior occurring in comparison to other genes (p.114).

Chapter 7

1. “… the notion that there should be one set of truth’s available to everyone is modern democratic fallacy. It doesn’t work” – Irving Kristol (p.131)
2. “Ironically, today many modern conservatives fervently agree with Karl Marx that religion is “the opium of the people”; they add a heartfelt, “thank God!”  – Ronald Bailey (p.131).

Part 3

1. Four anxieties about human nature: (a) If people are innately different, there would be justification for discrimination and opposition; (b) If people are innately immoral, there is no point improving humanity; (c) If it’s all just biology, free will is a myth and people can’t be held accountable; (d) If it’s all just biology, life can’t have meaning (p.139)

Chapter 8

1. The moral appeal of the Blank slate arises from the reasoning that if we’re all blank, we’re all equal (p.14)
2. If people are innately different, there evils may arise from that: (a) It becomes rational to discriminate against people that don’t look like you; (b) It becomes rational to blame them for their lot in life; (c) People might entertain eugenics to remove people with undesirable traits out of society (p.142)
3. “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that carry them far apart” – Confucius (p.142)
4. Genes affect personality and intelligence, although those differences apply to group averages and there’s overlap between group members (i.e., groups who have high averages in a trait will have some members scoring low on that trait) – (p.144)
5. Pinker argues that because the more information we have about a person’s qualifications, the less we default to decisions based on race or gender averages, the best cure for discrimination is more accurate tests of mental abilities. – (p.147)
6. Example of where discrimination has been justified in practice: benefits of racially diverse workplaces outweigh the costs of discriminating against white people (p.148)
7. Greater rewards go to people with greater inborn talents if people are willing to pay for the fruits of those talents (p.149)
8. The fact that inborn talents contribute to social status does not mean it is the only contribution (p.150)
9. Evolutionary success and goodness do not mean the same thing (p.150)
10. If people differ in talent, some will still find themselves in poverty – even in a society that manages to eliminate discrimination. Pinker argues that this will be an injustice that would be overlooked if we don’t admit in the first place that people have innate differences in ability (p.151)
11. “If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin” – Charles Darwin (p.151)
12. A non-blank slate implies a tradeoff between freedom and material equality (p.152)
13. 20^th century eugenics was a cause of the left. The conservatives of the time hated it because they saw it as man trying to play God (p.153)
14. Hitler read Marx. Pinker argues the former got from the latter the ideology that history is a story of conflict between groups and certain groups are inferior to others (non-Aryans & Bourgeoise) and humanity will only be better if these inferior groups are stamped out. (p.157)
15. Marxist features attributable to the blank slate ideology: (a) People are the same, therefore anyone who is materially better off must have gotten there through greed or theft; (b) If the mind is a blank slate, a society that wants to cultivate a certain kind of mind also controls the people’s experiences; (c) If the people are shaped by their social environments, growing up in a materially better environment irredeemably corrupts their minds, values and tastes; (d) Self-interest is learnt and not a part of human nature. Self-interested actions simply imply greed or laziness and must be punished by the state; (e) Individuals are dispensible. It is the society as a whole that must be prioritized (p.157-158)

Chapter 9

1. The view that human nature is wicked could lead to the fear that social reform is a waste of time (p.159)
2. Naturalistic fallacy: If it’s in nature, it is good; Moralistic fallacy: If it is good, it must be found in nature/biology (p.162)
3. Pinker argues that if the mind is a blank slate, every inner desire will translate to an overwhelming urge that would lead wicked actions. However, if the mind is a system, there are components whose drives can be contacted by other components. (p.166)
4. Pinker argues that peaceful coexistence doesn’t come from stamping out their selfish desires, but by pitting long-sighted mental components against short-sighted ones (p.169)
5. Pinker argues that since we are not just products of the environment, there will always be costs to changing human behavior (p.169)

Chapter 10

1. “No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on the ground that it was human nature” A. A. Milne (p.175)
2. There is dilemma: if behavior is determined (biologically, randomly or otherwise), then we can’t claim responsibility for our actions (p.178)
3. Some legal theorists posit that criminal law is just controlled implementation of humanity’s desire revenge (p.182)

Chapter 11

1. Pinker argues that: (a) The wrongness of discrimination is not only because everyone has the same traits; (b) The wrongness of violence is not because people are not naturally predisposed to it; (c) Being responsible for one’s actions should not be only because people’s motives aren’t always clean; (d) The meaningfulness of people’s motives shouldn’t be because biology cannot explain certain aspect of it (yet) (p.193)

Part 4

Chapter 12

1. Social constructionists believe that reality is socially constructed through language, stereotypes and media. They believe that people can’t view reality directly, but access it through lenses colored by the prevailing culture. Consequently, anyone claiming to know the truth is only trying to exert power through the backroad of offering an alternative lens to view reality. (p.198)
2. Naïve realism: we see things as they are (p.199)
3. Naive realism isn’t true due to the visual illusions (p.199)
4. If one claims the mind has the innate ability to form categorizations based on some reality, it can also be used to provide grounds for justifying stereotypes of race and gender that can be used to discriminate out-group members (p.201)
5. Pinker admits some stereotypes may be inaccurate, but criticizes moral relativists for wanting to do away with the idea that some categorizations humans make are actually grounded in objective reality (p.202)
6. Stereotypes are not typically inaccurate, but will definitely be inaccurate if a person has no direct, firsthand experience with the stereotyped group; or belongs to a group that sees the stereotyped group as an outgroup (p.204-5)
7. Stereotypes may end up being accurate also as self-fulfilling prophecies. For instance, at a time in America, blacks were not seen to be fit as leaders. But this was due to institutional barriers (e.g. schools that refused admission to black students). This meant that there were less educated black people – thus, justifying the stereotype about black people not being fit for leadership. (p.207)
8. Social constructionists also argue language has the power to constrain thought. Pinker counters this by arguing that the mind has properties that are independent of input through senses (p.207)
9. Deconstructionists are another group who argue that language is a system that has no connection reality. As a result, the ruling power can manipulate its use to preserve power or oppress others. (p.208)
10. Pinker argues that creating new words for minorities and other disadvantaged groups suggests that words and attitudes are so intermingled that the only way to change peoples’ attitudes is to change the words. (p.211)
11. Euphemism treadmill: when new words used to replace changed words also become changed themselves because of association (p.212)
12. Pinker argues that the euphemism treadmill suggests that concepts, not nominal labels are what stand out in the mind (p.213)

Chapter 13

1. Pinker provides a list of cognitive faculties and institutions: (a) An intuitive physics to understand objects and how they move in the world; (b) An intuitive biology to understand the innate essence of all living things; (c)An intuitive engineering for converting things to tools to achieve a goal: (d) An intuitive phycology to understand and interact with other people; (e) An intuition about space to orient the self in the physical space; (f) An intuition about numbers to estimate quantities of things; (g) An intuition about probability to deal with uncertainties; (h) An intuition about economics to exchange things; (i) A mental database and logic to represent ideas; (j) Language to share ideas (p.220-221)
2. Pinker argues that education is a technology that makes up for knowledge that are not innate or intuitive (p.221)
3. Pinker argues that fear of GMOs arises from human intuitions about biology applied to plants – whereas, in the real sense, GMOs aren’t necessarily inferior to natural plants because of how they were bred (p.231)
4. Alan Fiske taxonomy of human transactions: (a) Communal sharing: share without keeping track; (b) Authoritative ranking: Dominant members of the group take from lower-ranking members; (c) Equality matching: exchange goods that are similar or comparable; (d) Market pricing: modern economic system of rents, wages, prices and interests (p.233-234)
5. Physical fallacy: The belief that the value of an object comes from its innate characteristics, rather than what someone would pay for it. (p.237)
6. Famines still occur, not necessarily due to population explosion but because of man-made interventions that prevent food from getting to those who need it (p.237)
7. Pinker argues that the Malthusian prophecy underestimated how technological progress increases availability and efficiency of resources (p.237)
8. Paul Rome’s perspectives: (a) Constraint on human prosperity isn’t material resources but ideas, e.g. petroleum used to be a water contaminant before becoming fuel; (b) Ideas, unlike material resources, e.g. food, fuel, etc., are non-rival goods. This means that they can be duplicated without depleting the original stock (p.238)

Chapter 14

1. Family love can evolve into nepotism (p.234)
2. Leaders from history who have tried to rally a social group around a cause have typically used family terms, e.g., brethren, brothers to facilitate solidarity (p.247)
3. Pinker argues that the idea that human are innately communal stems from the noble savage doctrine (p.255)
4. In the ultimatum game, proposers tend to offer almost half of the total while respondents reject anything less than at least half (p.256)
5. Hunting in hunter-gatherer societies is treated as a public good. If the hunter who makes the largest catch refuses to share, he is punished with gossip and ostracism, and if he shares, he is rewarded with prestige (p.258)

Chapter 15

Part 5

Chapter 16

1. According to Pinker, from sociological perspective, individuals are mere parts of the larger society, while from the economic perspective, society is an arrangement emerging from some sacrificing their autonomy for security from others flexing their autonomy (p.285)
2. Thomas Sowell’s “Two visions”: (a) Tragic vision: An individual is limited on his/her own and must depend on social arrangements; (b) Utopian vision: An individual’s limitations arise from the society, but a better society would let humanity reach its potential (p.287)
3. Research from Frans de Waal and colleagues show that low-ranking primates can coordinate to depose the alpha primate (p.298)
4. Failings of the US constitution according to Pinker: (a) Silent on genocide of native Americans; (b) Silent on slavery of African Americans; (c) Silent on women rights; (d) Sees equality of opportunity as the only way to distribute wealth; (d) Not stipulating the values and customs needed for a democracy to work (p.298)
5. Pinker argues that traditions and adopted not just to human nature, but also the prevalent material and economic conditions. Therefore, respecting human nature doesn’t mean keeping all kinds of past traditions (p.299)
6. Robert Frank’s policy recommendation: Instead of taxing income, governments should tax consumption. This would prevent the hedonic treadmill (p.303)

Chapter 17

1. Although aggressive parents raise aggressive kids, Pinker argues that aggression may also be a trait that is inherited (p.310)
2. Pinker argues that the public health approach to stemming violence may not be effective (p.312)
3. Pinker argues that the roots of violence doesn’t have to be reduced to just genetics as this would mean blaming ethnicities with more violence on average for having “bad genes”; he also argues that even if people have inherited a “gene of violence” it doesn’t mean they can’t help but get violent (p.315)  
4. Because of human nature and human history, the question is not, “why are people aggressive” but “how do people learn not to be aggressive?” (p.316)
5. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita study: Analyzed 25 conflicts in the past 200 years and found that the aggressor made the accurate decision to initiate the attack (p.319)
6. ‘Lex talionis’: Law of retaliation (p.324)
7. Societies that herd animals tend to have an honor culture, likely due to livestock easier to steal than farmlands. A herdsman who takes an insult is signaling that his possessions can be taken from him without issue (p.327)
8. Inner city African American neighborhood tends to have high levels of violence because they have an honor culture. However, since they were never herdsmen, they likely picked it up from the descendants of Scottish and Irish herdsmen who settled in southern United States (p.328-329)
9. “Violence is a way to enforce property rights in the absence of legal recourse” – Jeff Grogger (p.329)
10. Considerations for human conflict resolution: (a) Submit to the rule of law; (b) Have conflicting parties back down without losing honor; (c) Realize people can deceive themselves, and you can do the same to yourself; (d) See overlaps between your interests and those of others (p.336)

Chapter 18

1. Reasons for gender equality in recent years: (a) Expansion of moral circle to include women rights; (b) Technological and economic progress; (c) Economic value of brains over brawn; (d) Increase in human lifespan; (e) Affordability of extended education; (f) Feminism (p.337-338)
2. Gender equality doesn’t imply that all genders are psychologically identical, but that people in either gender shouldn’t be judged based on average characteristics of their group members (p.340)
3. Two school of feminism: (a) Equity feminism: Opposes gender discrimination; (b) Gender feminism: Posits that women are enslaved by a system of male dominance (p.341)
4. Gender feminism is committed to the following claims: (a) Gender differences are not grounded in biology but are socially constructed; (b) Power is the single source of human motivation and we understand society by understanding how power is used; (c) To understand human interactions, don’t look at the individuals but look at the groups they belong to (p.341)
5. According to Pinker, the only way inequality of outcome is proof of inequality of opportunity is if all members of comparative groups were blank slates, and thus identical in all psychological traits (p.353)
6. Not all sex differences in various occupations are caused by gender discrimination (p.355)
7. Average differences in ability may be irrelevant, but average differences in preferences of members in each gender are not irrelevant (p356)
8. “If you insist on using gender parity as you measure social justice, it means you have to keep many men and women out of the work they like best and push them into work they don’t like” – Linda Gottfredson (p.359)
9. The noble savage influence is seen in those who see the motive to rape not coming from human nature (which they see as natural and good) but from social institutions (p.362)

Chapter 19

1. Heritability: Proportion of variance in a trait that corresponds with genetic differences (p.334)
2. Judith Harris argues in her “Group socialization theory” that behavioral tendencies don’t just come from genes or what parents model in the home, but from what peers’ model during the during the process of socialization (p.390)

Chapter 20

1. Thorstein Veblen posited that the psychology of taste is driven by conspicuous consumption, conspicuous leisure, and conspicuous waste (p. 406)
2. In art, modernism was a reaction to the certainty and complacency of the Victorian era. Post modernism, on the other hand, argues that there are many perspectives on reality and one is not necessarily better than the other (p.410-411)
3. “Modernist literature tried to do away with storytelling, which it thought vulgar, replacing it with flashbacks, epiphanies, streams of consciousness but storytelling is intrinsic to biological time, which we cannot escape” – A.S. Byatt (p.419)

Part 6

Pinker argues that post modernism is inconsistent because it claims to deconstruct power but refuses objective standards that could be used to hold those in power accountable.