Rating: 
Summary: oh really?
Review: Oh really Mr Pinker?If this book is a "political work" then Pinker should make it explicitly so. If it is intended philosophically, it is just plain bad. If it is a scientific piece it is marginal. I recommend that Pinker SHOULD make a political case for his ideas (much like the late Carl Sagan). Actually, if you really want to read socio-biology E.O Wilson is much better place to start. Please folks don't be fooled.
Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: While this book has good parts, they are completely countered by Pinker's theory that the humans are the exact OPPOSITE of a blank slate. I would highly recommend, for an alternate and more credible viewpoint, the works Of George H. Weinberg (sometimes listed without the "H"), particularly his books THE PLIANT ANIMAL and SELF-CREATION. And I've read the works of the highly regarded Erich Fromm, who gives statistics that show small tribal units do NOT engage in violence in nearly the proportions that more sizable populations do. Which counters Pinker's argument that humans are violent in all situations. Maybe Fromm is wrong...but maybe he's right.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Thought Provoking Book
Review: "The Blank Slate" is a fabulous read that I can recommend to any person interested in popular science in general and psychology in particular. Pinker takes no prisoners. He has little time for some of the touchy feely theories that masquerade as science in learning institutions today. He reserves special criticism for those individuals who think that humans are born with a brain as a blank slate waiting to absorb all its ideas from its immediate environment. He also has little time for those believers of the "ghost in the machine" and the so called "noble savage". To any parent, it should be obvious that children are born with inherited characteristics that remain with them for the rest of their lives. An introverted child will be an introverted adult. To Pinker, an example such as this should be self obvious but, for whatever reason, some people choose to deny reality. We certainly don't deny inherited physical traits such as skin colour or body shape so why do we deny inherited traits relating to human nature? Read this book with an open mind and see the world without scales on you eyes!
Rating:
Summary: Opinionated
Review: Too opinionated a book. Few believe the mind is a blank slate. But Pinker seems to believe the mind is a TV dinner, and that a chef in the kitchen (parents!) is an almost incidental redundancy. To take a trivial example to counter this, David Letterman once had on his TV show identical twins who only met in middle-age. Well, they weren't exactly identical, because one was quite fat, and the other quite thin!! Now if identical twins are so much alike that--as Pinker states--some of them (Pinker wants to give the impression that it's ALL of them) end up vacationing in the same spot, even if seperated at birth, certainly these two twins on Letterman would have had the same body build!!
Rating:
Summary: so so
Review: A lot here is of interest, but I can't help but wonder if something exists in Pinker's personal history to make him so inflexible about the idea that children are NOT molded by their parents, that parents are almost incidental creatures in a child's life, only there to provide food and shelter. I'll just give one example contradicting this (and an area that he doesn't address): multiple personality disorder. In my armchair psychologist's reading, I have not come across one single instance where someone who suffered from multiple personality disorder was NOT abused sexually or physically over a prolonged period as a child. Multiple personality disorder should arguably be a purely genetic phenomenon from Pinker's point of view. But, to my knowledge, the facts show multiple personality disorder, while occurring in vulnerable personalites (with, yes, a genetic basis), occur in vulnerable personalities that were ALSO victims of long term abuse by, usually, a parent. Reptiles do not have the emotion of love, since nurturing of a child for the sake of that child's ultimate welfare is not in the reptilian experience. But human beings are not reptiles. That's why "cold-blooded" is an insult among our species. P.S., anyone who's read management books knows that one man (instead of another) heading an organization can have a huge impact--in numerous ways--on the sometimes thousands of employees beneath him. A parent certainly has MORE of an influence on a few offspring! I'm an "anti-victim" type, if anything, and believe too many people blame others for their problems. But I think Pinker takes it too far.
Rating: 
Summary: Stick to what you know...
Review: As usual, Pinker's book is very engagingly written and makes a solid case for the concept of "human nature." Most of the reviews have already covered that part of it--what's bizarre to me about the book is the shift it makes near the end, when Pinker decides to go on a little rampage about the modernist movement in literature and art. It is clear from that chapter that Pinker knows next to nothing about modernism; despite his gleeful acceptance of low-brow artistic thinking (which is ok, I guess, if you can admit it--and he does), his critique of modernism and postmodernism is more irrelevant than it is damning. Nevertheless, when Pinker sticks to what he knows--language, neuropsychology, cognition, etc., he is excellent, and very entertaining. When he strives for "relevance," political and artistic, you can tell that he's out of his league, though those parts are equally entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Some nerve!
Review: So THIS is a controversial book. It just goes to show how utterly backward the intellectual culture is. Pinker mercilessly exposes the delusions of the liberal-left and the vain pretensions of artistic voluntarism. Get it straight you artistic fops! Your art is (1) ugly (2) boring (3) stupid. As for the liberals who are utterly clueless of the facts (and there are only two: 50% of you is your genes and 50% of you is your genes' reactions with the biochemical environment, with nothing left over for culture and experience), you can't make an omelette without cracking a few heads. This is the greatest book of the new millenium. Those who demure from its clear and plain propositions need to be selected-against.
Rating: 
Summary: Haven't I read this before?
Review: After reading the Language Instinct by this author, I excitedly picked up "The Blank Slate". Unfortunately, this book mostly repeats the same old arguments that have been repeated and analyzed since the 50's. I was hoping for a more detailed look at the study of the brain and linguistics and how it effects our understanding of why the blank slate theory is ultimately invalid. I'm not sure why Pinker even bothered writing this one. He even says in his introduction that many of his colleagues advised him not to cover such already familiar territory. I was also disappointed in Pinker's writing. In his other books his prose kept me on my toes. This one however, tends to drone on and on. I did find a few of the chapters at the end of the book, The "Hot Buttons" part interesting so I gave it 3 stars. If you want the real Mccoy parts of this argument, just look back at the articles published by Chomsky and Skinner on the subject half a century ago.
Rating:
Summary: Champion of an adolescent science
Review: This finely crafted work has a dual purpose. The first is to confound, refute, and rebuke the fatuous critics of sociobiology. The second aim is to strengthen that nascent science with further research. Pinker wants us to shed the notion that we have no evolutionary roots for our behaviour - that our actions come wholly from parents, schools or churches. While that sounds largely reasonable, he continually reminds us that many public pronouncements and policies continue to reflect the mistaken stand. Otherwise, he argues, we are infinitely malleable, vulnerable to anyone able to direct our actions. Birth with an empty mind is the ultimate condemnation of free will, not the reverse, Pinker argues. This excellent work demonstrates how evolution provides a framework for how we think and how our cultural environment finishes the structure. The blank slate view of the mind, along with its fallacious fellows, the noble savage and the "ghost in the machine," have a long tradition in Western culture. All three concepts detach humanity from the rest of nature. "Nature is what we are born to rise above," said Rose in The African Queen, reflecting, says Pinker, the universality of the triplet in our society. He urges a more reasonable basis for considering who we are and how we react to life. Scorning any accusations of "biological determinism," Pinker doesn't insists nature drives our behaviour. He merely wants us to bring its impact into clear view. We've allowed the myths to conceal our real roots. Simply stated, the slate is first written on in the womb. He outlines the structure of the brain, showing how the embryo's physical growth and the brain's development relate. Given the many brain-controlled operations that are in working order at birth, it seems unlikely the "slate" could be blank. Pinker stresses "the computational theory of the mind" which places process before content. The mind, then, is a form of software. The software comes with birth, but the input varies with different environments. It's important we understand this, he urges. Every software has built in limitations and constraints. Pinker contends these limitations are exhibited in every individual in unique fashion. Groups or cultures, in themselves, don't manifest patterns of these limitations. Cultural change are simply observed averages, not predictable or inevitable manifestations. Pinker goes on to examine facets of our views of life - politics, gender, children, violence, all collected under his rubric: "hot buttons." He analyses in some detail how our genetic heritage [but, emphatically, not a "gene for . . . "] impacts these topical areas. More significantly, he indicates how we might address these issues better than we do. His suggestions aren't even recommendations, but a call for a broader outlook before attitudes on behaviour are expressed. His discussion of these topics is the real value this book holds for the general reader. The examples are practical and addressable by policy makers and those who elect them. The more scientific material in the first chapters of the book provide strong background for his more concrete examples further on. Pinker is under no illusions that his ideas will be implemented quickly, nor will they fail to be targeted by those still holding to "the modern denial of human nature." That mind-set is the reason he is very clear in pointing out where research is needed. He recognizes where resistance will arise and meets it effectively. He explains the tactics and reasoning of those who deny human nature has a biological basis, and counters with excellent examples and suggestions. That he is able to achieve this with such lucidity is refreshingly welcome. Anyone with children should read this book. Anyone who's been a child should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Pinker continues to dazzle
Review: It seems that all great scientists must eventually become philosophers, and Steven Pinker is no exception. Here he ranges wider than ever before, drawing from a vast array of sources to show that the politically correct notion of the Blank Slate is so much bunkum. Humans do, after all, have innate and inherited traits, tendencies, and intellectual capacities. While this is bad news for the social-activist Left, it's cold comfort to the Religious Right as well. Pinker persuasively argues that we have a better chance of building a happy, just world by taking human nature into account, rather than trying to deny what's staring us in the face. An enthralling and inspiring read!
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