Analyzing Five Paragraphs Integrating Pinker Quotes

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Integrating Pinker Quotes

Pinker (2003) states that, "The human mind is a blank slate" with its entire structure coming "from socialization, culture, parenting, and experience." One may consider this to mean that human beings have no nature, in the words of Jose Ortega y Gasset, a historian. This again signifies that humans have no instinct, as stated by Ashley Montagu, the anthropologist. Stephen Jay Gould, the late paleontologist and biologist, states that our brain handles a whole range of different behaviors, while being susceptible to none (Transcript of "Human nature and the blank slate," 2008).

"The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature," a book by Steven Pinker, states that this "blank slate" concept was influential, during the previous century. This was on the basis of the popular notion that our mind represents a blank slate, with its whole structure stemming from experience, socialization, culture, and parenting, indicating the previously-mentioned ideas of Gasset, Gould, and Montagu (Transcript of "Human nature and the blank slate," 2008).

Numerous reasons exist for doubting the above "blank slate" theory, some emerging simply out of prudence. As I have heard from a number of individuals over time, anybody with two or more kids is well aware that their children have some inborn talents and temperaments, which aren't all derived from their external environment.

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Children exposed to language will acquire it, while one's pet won't, probably due to some intrinsic difference between the two. Also, anybody who's ever had a relationship with the opposite sex is aware that the male and female minds aren't indistinguishable. Moreover, increasing outcomes of scientific research of humans prove that mankind, indeed, isn't a blank slate at birth. One among these is an anthropologic study -- into human universals. However, if, instead, one explores the commonalities in different cultures, one can see that an immensely rich range of emotions and behaviors and worldviews exist in the 6,000+ cultures around the world (Transcript of "Human nature and the blank slate," 2008).

In terms of "blank state" theory's political appeal, Pinker writes that: "If we're all blank slates, we can perfect mankind." This is the longstanding dream of perfecting mankind by means of social engineering. Meanwhile, if man is born with specific instincts, they may, perhaps, condemn man to aggression, self-centeredness, and bias. To cut a long story short, I contend that, in Pinker's book, these, in fact, represent non-sequiturs.….....

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