RE: Pinker's How the Mind Works + The Blank Slate

From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Fri Sep 13 2002 - 13:15:17 MDT


Dan wrote:
> Subject: Re: Pinker's How the Mind Works + The Blank Slate
>
>
> Anand wrote:
>
>> *******************************************************
>>
>> Pinker's The Blank Slate has a US release date of September 26. The
>> following is the jacket description:
>>
>> *******************************************************
>>
>> (http://www.mit.edu/~pinker/slate.html)
>
> It's interesting to see to what extent this message has taken over
> Pinker's message in _How The Mind Works_. The premise of _The Blank
> Slate_ started out as a precautionary disclaimer in _How The Mind
> Works_, but by the time I saw him lecture at Yale, the whole of his
> lecture was taken up by this message. It looks like now he's been
> moved to write a whole book on this message.
>
> This is a pity, because what he has to say about human differences
> (they exist) and discrimination (it's *still* wrong and unjustified)
> is so obvious; it's a sad statement on the current picture of
> academia that his message is so controversial.

### I wonder if mentioning this book will earn you accusations of being a
barbarian, racist, or maybe even a Nazi. After all, Pinker reiterates the
notion universally accepted by psychologists, that the variation in
intelligence is predominantly determined by genetics, a fact vehemently
denied by the non-expert academic left.

Rafal



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