Hi all: The following review interested me because it has been my contention that RNA is as important as DNA when studying heredity. I contend that RNA carries forward the instinctual traits. The 'blank Slate' may be blank, but it lends itself to being written upon more readily in the language of our forebears.
For example, when parents, coming from one cultural environment raise their children in another, the learning curve is steeper than it is for children raised in the cultural environment of their parents. That learning curve also may account for the extra effort, and accomplishment by children of emigrating parents. A matter of overcompensation for a handicap Regards Ed G "The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial Of Human Nature" by Steven Pinker. Viking, 510 pages, $39.99 Toronto Star 2003/01/12 A Canadian linguist buries the notion that humans are born innocent. We are only now beginning to understand the brain, by Michael Smith. In a well-known cartoon, two scientists stand before a blackboard, on which is written a long, complicated formula. In the middle of the scrawl of symbols is the phrase: "Then a miracle occurs." Says one scientist, "I think you should be more explicit here in step two." Psychologist/linguist Steven Pinker's description of what he calls the "official theory" of human nature that there is none - brought the cartoon to mind. The so-called "Blank Slate" has at its heart a miracle by any standards: the development of the enormously varied and complex human mind from ... well ... pretty much nothing, if Pinkei's "The Blank Slate" is correct. Pinker's new book is an attempt to be "more explicit" about the gap, using the increasinglypersuasive findings of the cognitive sciences. Well-written and meticulously argued, "The Blank Slate" will undoubtedly set the cat among the academic pigeons, for Pinker argues correctly that the idea is political, rather than scientific. If there are no innate traits, then aggression; greed, nepotism and a host of other unpleasant traits must be the result of environmental influences. Change the environment in just the right way and Utopia is within your grasp. In the absence of scientific evidence of how the mind works, the Blank Slate is actually progressive. It says that we don’t have'to put up with racism, sexism, aggression, and greed. (On the down side, one mans Utopia is anothers nightmare. It should be enough to note that such figures as Mao Tse-Tung and Pol Pot subscribed to the Blank Slate, without notable success in remodelling their human materied.) Closely linked to the Blank Slate are two other ideas: that primitive man is basically good and gentle (the Noble Savage) and that there is a mind (or soul) that is somehow distinct from the body and brain (the Ghost in the Machine.) Recent years have brought increasing scientific evidence that shows, Pinker says, that all three are wrong, and not only wrong but actually dangerous. For instance, US. President George Bush hamstrung American stem cell research at least in part because some philosophers and theologians argued that "ensoulment" takes place shortly after conception. In other words, Pinker says, American policy on this promising research was decided by asking the question: "When does the ghost first enter the machine?" The response to earlier works that challenged the Blank Slate - E. 0. Wilson’s Sociobiology, for instance has been angry to say the least. Wilson was the subject of protest and calumny, and other researchers have been called Nazis and fascists. My guess is that Pinker has set himself up for some of the same medicine. That said, the evidence is swiftly accumulating that the human mind evolved - in the same way our bodies did - to let us survive and prosper in a complicated and dangerous world. The mind can do somethings astonishingly well. For instance, we learn spoken language automatically, as long as we're surrounded by people using language. But other things are much harder and take effort. No one learns to read automatically. Pinker is primarily a linguist (Canadian-born, he's Peter de Florenz Professor of Psychology at MIT) and his own field has given convincing evidence that the human mind is not entirely a blank slate at birth. To the contrary, we each have what might be called a language engine - a mental module designed by evolution and built by our genes to endow us with a spoken language. We do not so much learn our language as re-invent it. The module is adjustable. Children of English-speaking parents will learn French, if that’s what they hear in infancy. This book extends that idea, proposing that our minds are a collection of many such modules, all busily interacting with each other and the outside world. So, for instance, Pinker notes that biological evidence suggests we should have a module that makes us protect our children and close relatives. This might give rise to tribalism and, nepotism and would explain the fact that children are much more likely to be harmed by stepparents than biological parents. (Cases of serious harm to children by parents or stepparents remain rare, by the way.) But if this module were adjustable on the basis of external input - as the language module is - it could extend the protection imperative to stepchildren, people from the next village, or people in afghanistan. And that's what has happened over the past few hundred years, Pinker argues. The first part of this book shows why the Blank Slate, the Noble Savage and the Ghost in the Machine are no longer tenable.While there will undoubtedly be uproar as the taboos tlunble, Pinker makes a solid case, But if these once-progressive ideas fall to the ground, what can we put in their place? Must we admit that race hatred, sexism and violence are bred in the bone? Pinker argues the contrary, that knowing how the mind works will give us - for the first time - the tools to control those evils. Its simply not true, he says, that an innate human nature excuses our faults; there are some things we should do because they are morally right. We can, in fact, make choices - one of the consequences of our remarkably complex minds. For instance, in the second part of the book, Pinker tackles the vexed question of how much infuence genes play in our adult personalities. The answer, now becoming a consensus, is that about half the variation among us is genetic. The rest of the variation comes from the environment Well, so much we thought we knew - that's why we play Mozart to our infants. But it turns out the environment that counts is not the home, but the peer group - other kids, other teens. So should parents just give up? Does it matter how we treat the kids, if the real influence happens outside the home? Well Pinker says, of course you should treat the children nicely its morally correct and besides, one day they’ll be looking after you. This is not, in the end, a book that offers simple answers. Instead, it says, we are immensely complicated creatures, whose distinguishing trait our over-developed brain - we are only now beginning to understand in detail. To the Blank Slate, Pinker opposes a vision of humanity at once more hopeful and more realistic. Reviewer Michael Smith is a Toronto based freelance science writer. _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
