Hezo Kittie

When Worlds Collide, Part XXVII

I started The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker today for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because I completely subscribed into the Blank Slate idea over the past year or so, and attribute it, along with the idea of free will, as central to my growth as a person. And, if Pinker puts on a compelling argument, I am freely ready to be proven wrong and have my world rocked and turned upside-down.

Secondly, I don't want to read the old ideas of philosophers and thinkers while ignoring modern science (which is probably the main argument critics have against reading philosophy in general). In fact, looking at these supposedly old ideas through this "cognitive revolution" lens will make them more interesting.

Which brings me to the first of what will likely be many interesting quotes from this book:

"More generally, the interplay of mental systems can explain how people can entertain revenge fantasies that they never act on, or can commit adultery only in their hearts. In this way the theory of human nature coming out of the cognitive revolution has more in common with the Judeo-Christian theory of human nature, and with the psychoanalytic theory proposed by Sigmund Freud, than with behaviorism, social constructionism, and other versions of the Blank Slate."

Modern science and Christianity in the same sentence? Hmmmm. The plot thickens.

[I didn't know there was a plot. har-har.]