The Blank Slate: the modern denial of human nature

In 'The Blank Slate', Steven Pinker, world-renowned thinker and author of 'The Language Instinct', argues that the truth about our identity has been obscured by this beguiling and pervasive notion, which denies what is at the very heart of our being - our innate human nature. It is a notion that has profoundly affected how we think about sexuality, race, child rearing, intelligence, criminality and the gender divide - in fact, almost every significant aspect of our lives and personalities. Pinker argues that, for more than a century, leading intellectuals have, through a failure to address simple biological facts, ignored what we are when talking about who we are. He explores the history of this error as well as the cultural prejudices that have led us to bury our true nature. And he shows how both our understanding of ourselves and our decisions in the wider world should be informed by modern scientific thought.