TheEthanwashere
Professor Pinker talked about his book, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, published by Viking. In it, he describes three major theories that have shaped our understanding of human nature, including the idea that the mind is a “blank slate” shaped entirely by external influences. The theory of man as a “noble savage” and the theory that the human mind is independent of the body are also discussed. Professor Pinker argues that these theories are flawed and suggests that there is a genetic basis for human nature that all three theories ignore. He also addresses the backlash, from both the political left and right, to the idea that genes influence human nature and argues that the arguments these critics make are based on non-sequiturs. Professor Pinker took questions from the audience following his presentation.
10/10/02
Source
Steven Pinker: Blank Slate
Woah buddy, you need to calm down and get some edumatcation!
i need to?
yeah right…….
lol idiot.
I love seeing places where Steven Pinker's work overlaps with Tom Sowell, even though they're such different ends of the intellectual spectrum.
It's a sad world when this video only has 5,000 views. Thanks for uploading this OP.
Examples?
must every youtube lecture have a string of comments devoted to petty arguments?
c'mon guys.
Yes, it must.
And it ends at 1:05:00 Questions follow
I'm sure that the camera man is doing his best. But it's not good enough.
His intellect and hair dominate the room.
avoid contact with police because they will steal . prof. pinker knows this , and we owe him a small thank you for sharing this wisdom. thank you prof. pinker
I love listening to this Professor… He's Jewish, extremely intelligent but more importantly, he's very funny… I say more importantly because his speeches are interesting due to the latter fact.
If parenting has no effect on how a child turns out, why do clinical psychologists see over and over that a troubled adult was the first born in his family, to the point that a clinician will often correctly guess this fact without being given any relevant information about family history? The psychopathology in dysfunctional families is so often focused on the first born, and this must be the explanation, because the order of birth does not affect genetics.
Studies of twins that were raised apart can't tell us anything about the cause of neuroses, because most people don't have legitimate neuroses. Suppose only one subject in such a study has a neuroses, and his sibling in the study doesn't. That will just be noise in the data; the results will support that fact that many personality traits are genetically determined. But that doesn't support that parenting has no effect
Pinker misunderstood the flashback scene from Annie Hall (1:00:00). That scene was more about existential anxiety than anything else. Alvy fears that our individual lives are ultimately pointless when viewed against the backdrop of a purposeless universe headed for extinction. Alvy's dilemma is that he can't take his homework seriously anymore after discovering this uncomfortable fact about the universe. Pinker seems to think that the scene was about getting the audience side with the mother.
24:25 Nietzsche said basically the same thing long time ago. "It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages"
We need to use human nature, human culture, and free will together to fully understand humanity. If we only use human nature, then we'll rationalize the existing order and say that it's the only possible world. If we only use culture, then we'll fail to acknowledge differences within groups and similarities between groups. If we only use free will, then people will be left on their own without any help from anyone.
a bunch of bullshit couched in 'statistics', to make the system credible enough that no major change need be employed. It's known that in war torn, highly stressful areas, schizophrenia is high. Now that's obviously environment.
Starts at 7:20
1:28:16 to skipperino the Pinkerino.
Has Steven never heard of attachment theory, and the known relationship between abuse, neglect and care-giving failures on a profound scale inevitably have an impact on the growing child's cognitive and emotional development which live on into adulthood and can manifest in a variety of ways ? Attachment theory does have a sound research-empirical basis.
24:37 I think this is an error to state that "… our genes will combine with the best other genes." It is a fallacy to say the genes know what is best, they only know what is compatible. So this statement should be phrased "… our genes will combine with the most compatible genes.".
An example of personal biases seeping into science, as if he thinks that attraction is objective. Or perhaps he made an honest mistake.
Can someone direct me to studies about two consciousness' in the brain if the corpus collosum is severed? 33:20
Is the book still worth reading or has he said everything important in the talk? Thanks, guys!
Hes a fake!! He doesn't even have to read it
Pinker is brilliant. On the other hand, instances of laughter from the audience occur at points where the audience is most likely wrong.
Pinker is really an example of how much correlation there is between intelligence and a sense of humor. I lost it when he mentioned something so low brow as The Bloodhound Gang. It takes a special kind of intellectual confidence to drop something so distasteful in such a dignified talk and manage to use it to improve the whole debate.
He's not very bright
Histocompatability – its another factor – we mate and are attracted to people with divergent immunities (to pathogens). Its a more valuable system than a pretty lower lip or nose. But I love nice lips and the right type of nose, personally. 🙂 D.A., J.D., NYC