The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

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  First published in the USA by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc. 2002

  First published in Great Britain by Allen Lane The Penguin Press 2002

  Published in Penguin Books 2003

  12

  Copyright © Steven Pinker, 2002

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  ISBN-13: 978-0-14-192591-2

  NOTES

  PREFACE

  1. Herrnstein & Murray, 1994, p.311.

  2. Harris, 1998a, p.2.

  3. Thornhill & Palmer, 2000, p.176; quotation modified to make it gender-neutral.

  4. Hunt, 1999; Jensen, 1972; Kors & Silver-glate, 1998; J. P. Rushton, “The new enemies of evolutionary science,” Liberty, March 1998, pp. 31–35; “Psychologist Hans Eysenck, Freudian critic, dead at 81,” Associated Press, September 8, 1997.

  PART 1: THE BLANK SLATE, THE NOBLE SAVAGE, AND THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE

  1. Macnamara, 1999; Passmore, 1970; Stevenson & Haberman, 1998; Ward, 1998.

  2. Genesis 1:26.

  3. Genesis 3:16.

  4. This is according to interpretations postdating the Bible, which did not clearly distinguish mind from body.

  5. Creation: Opinion Dynamics, August 30, 1999; miracles: Princeton Survey Research Associates, April 15, 2000; angels: Opinion Dynamics, December 5, 1997; devil: Princeton Survey Research Associates, April 20, 2000; afterlife: Gallup Organization, April 1, 1998; evolution: Opinion Dynamics, August 30, 1999. Available through the Roper Center at the University of Connecticut Public Opinion Online: www.ropercenter.uconn.edu.

  Chapter 1: The Official Theory

  1. Locke, 1690/1947, bk. II, chap. 1, p.26.

  2. Hacking, 1999.

  3. Rousseau, 1755/1994, pp. 61–62.

  4. Hobbes, 1651/1957, pp. 185–186.

  5. Descartes, 1641/1967, Meditation VI, p. 177.

  6. Ryle, 1949, pp. 13–17.

  7. Descartes, 1637/2001, part V, p.10.

  8. Ryle, 1949, p.20.

  9. Cohen, 1997.

  10. Rousseau, 1755/1986, p.208.

  11. Rousseau, 1762/1979, p.92.

  12. Quoted in Sowell, 1987, p.63.

  13. Originally in Red Flag (Beijing), June 1, 1958; quoted in Courtois et al., 1999.

  14. J. Kalb, “The downtown gospel according to Reverend Billy,” New York Times, February 27, 2000.

  15. D. R. Vickery, “And who speaks for our earth?” Boston Globe, December 1, 1997.

  16. Green, 2001; R. Mishra, “What can stem cells really do?” Boston Globe, August 21, 2001.

  Chapter 2: Silly Putty

  1. Jespersen, 1938/1982, pp. 2–3.

  2. Degler, 1991; Fox, 1989; Gould, 1981; Richards, 1987.

  3. Degler, 1991; Fox, 1989; Gould, 1981; Rachels, 1990; Richards, 1987; Ridley, 2000.

  4. Degler, 1991; Gould, 1981; Kevles, 1985; Richards, 1987; Ridley, 2000.

  5. The term “Standard Social Science Model” was introduced by John Tooby and Leda Cosmides (1992). The philosophers Ron Mallon and Stephen Stich (2000) use “social constructionism” because it is close in meaning but shorter. “Social construction” was coined by one of the founders of sociology, Emile Durkheim, and is analyzed by Hacking, 1999.

  6. See Curti, 1980; Degler, 1991; Fox, 1989; Freeman, 1999; Richards, 1987; Shipman, 1994; Tooby & Cosmides, 1992.

  7. Degler, 1991, p.viii.

  8. White, 1996.

  9. Quoted in Fox, 1989, p.68.

  10. Watson, 1924/1998.

  11. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.139.

  12. Quoted in Degler, 1991, pp. 158–159.

  13. Breland & Breland, 1961.

  14. Skinner, 1974.

  15. Skinner, 1971.

  16. Fodor & Pylyshyn, 1988; Gallistel, 1990; Pinker & Mehler, 1988.

  17. Gallistel, 2000.

  18. Preuss, 1995; Preuss, 2001.

  19. Hirschfeld & Gelman, 1994.

  20. Ekman & Davidson, 1994; Haidt, in press.

  21. Daly, Salmon, & Wilson, 1997.

  22. McClelland, Rumelhart, & the PDP Research Group, 1986; Rumelhart, McClelland, & the PDP Research Group, 1986.

  23. Rumelhart & McClelland, 1986, p.143.

  24. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.148.

  25. Boas, 1911. My thanks to David Kemmerer for the examples.

  26. Degler, 1991; Fox, 1989; Freeman, 1999.

  27. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.84.

  28. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.95.

  29. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.96.

  30. Durkheim, 1895/1962, pp. 103–106.

  31. Durkheim, 1895/1962, p.110.

  32. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.161.

  33. Quoted in Tooby & Cosmides, 1992, p. 26.

  34. Ortega y Gasset, 1935/2001.

  35. Montagu, 1973a, p.9. The portion before the ellipsis is from an earlier edition, quoted in Degler, 1991, p.209.

  36. Benedict, 1934/1959, p.278.

  37. Mead, 1935/1963, p.280.

  38. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.209.

  39. Mead, 1928.

  40. Geertz, 1973, p.50.

  41. Geertz, 1973, p.44.

  42. Shweder, 1990.

  43. Quoted in Tooby & Cosmides, 1992, p. 22.

  44. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.208.

  45. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.204.

  46. Degler, 1991; Shipman, 1994.

  47. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.188.

  48. Quoted in Degler, 1991, pp. 103–104.

  49. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.210.

  50. Cowie, 1999; Elman et al, 1996, pp. 390–391.

  51. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.330.

  52. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.95.

  53. Quoted in Degler, 1991, p.100.

  54. Charles Singer, A short history of biology; quoted in Dawkins, 1998, p.90.

  Chapter 3: The Last Wall to Fall

  1. Wilson, 1998. The idea was first developed by John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, 1992.

  2. Anderson, 1995; Crevier, 1993; Gardner, 1985; Pinker, 1997.

  3. Fodor, 1994; Haugeland, 1981; Newell, 1980; Pinker, 1997, chap. 2.

  4. Brutus. 1, by Selmer Bringsjord. S. Bringsjord, “Chess is too easy,” Technology Review, March/April 1998, pp. 23–28.

  5. EMI (Experiments in Musical Intelligence), by David Cope. G. Johnson, “The artist’s angst is all in your head,” New York Times, November 16, 1997, p.16.

  6. Aaron, by Harold Cohen. G. Johnson, “The artist’s angst is all in your head,” New York Times, November 16, 1997, p.16.

  7. Goldenberg, Mazursky, & Solomon, 1999.

  8. Leibniz, 1768/1996, bk. II, chap, i, p.111.

  9. Leibniz, 1768/1996, preface, p.68.

  10. Chomsky, 1975; Chomsky, 1988b; Fodor, 1981.

  11. Elman et al., 1996; Rumelhart & McClelland, 1986.

  12. Dennett, 1986.

  13. Elman et al., 1996, p.82.

  14. Elman et al., 1996, pp. 99–1
00.

  15. Chomsky, 1975; Chomsky, 1993; Chomsky, 2000; Pinker, 1994.

  16. See also Miller, Galanter, & Pribram, 1960; Pinker, 1997, chap. 2; Pinker, 1999, chaps. 1, 10.

  17. Baker, 2001.

  18. Baker, 2001.

  19. Shweder, 1994; see Ekman & Davidson, 1994, and Lazarus, 1991, for discussion.

  20. See Lazarus, 1991, for a review of theories of emotion.

  21. Mallon & Stich, 2000.

  22. Ekman & Davidson, 1994; Lazarus, 1991.

  23. Ekman & Davidson, 1994.

  24. Fodor, 1983; Gardner, 1983; Hirschfeld & Gelman, 1994; Pinker, 1994; Pinker, 1997.

  25. Elman et al., 1996; Karmiloff-Smith, 1992.

  26. Anderson, 1995; Gazzaniga, Ivry, & Man-gun, 1998.

  27. Calvin, 1996a; Calvin, 1996b; Calvin & Ojemann, 2001; Crick, 1994; Damasio, 1994; Gazzaniga, 2000a; Gazzaniga, 2000b; Gazzaniga, Ivry, & Mangun, 1998; Kandel, Schwartz, & Jessell, 2000.

  28. Crick, 1994.

  29. 1948, translated by C. B. Garnett (New York: Macmillan), p.664.

  30. Damasio, 1994.

  31. Damasio, 1994; Dennett, 1991; Gazzaniga, 1998.

  32. Gazzaniga, 1992; Gazzaniga, 1998.

  33. Anderson et al., 1999; Blair & Cipolotti, 2000; Lykken, 1995.

  34. Monaghan & Glickman, 1992.

  35. Bourgeois, Goldman-Rakic, & Rakic, 2000; Chalupa, 2000; Geary & Huffman, 2002; Katz, Weliky, & Crowley, 2000; Rakic, 2000; Rakic, 2001. See also Chapter 5.

  36. Thompson et al., 2001.

  37. Thompson et al., 2001.

  38. Witelson, Kigar, & Harvey, 1999.

  39. LeVay, 1993.

  40. Davidson, Putnam, & Larson, 2000; Raine et al., 2000.

  41. Bouchard, 1994; Hamer & Copeland, 1998; Lykken, 1995; Plomin, 1994; Plomin et al., 2001; Ridley, 2000.

  42. Hyman, 1999; Plomin, 1994.

  43. Bouchard, 1994; Bouchard, 1998; Damasio, 2000; Lykken et al., 1992; Plomin, 1994; Thompson et al, 2001; Tramo et al, 1995; Wright, 1995.

  44. Segal, 2000.

  45. Lai et al., 2001; Pinker, 2001b.

  46. Frangiskakis et al., 1996.

  47. Chorney et al., 1998.

  48. Benjamin et al., 1996.

  49. Leschetal., 1996.

  50. Lai et al., 2001; Pinker, 2001b.

  51. Charlesworth, 1987; Miller, 2000b; Mousseau & Roff, 1987; Tooby & Cosmides, 1990.

  52. Bock & Goode, 1996; Lykken, 1995; Mealey, 1995.

  53. Blair & Cipolotti, 2000; Hare, 1993; Kir-win, 1997; Lykken, 1995; Mealey, 1995.

  54. Anderson et al., 1999; Blair & Cipolotti, 2000; Lalumière, Harris, & Rice, 2001; Lykken, 2000; Mealey, 1995; Rice, 1997.

  55. Barkow, Cosmides, & Tooby, 1992; Betzig, 1997; Buss, 1999; Cartwright, 2000; Crawford & Krebs, 1998; Evans & Zarate, 1999; Gaulin & McBurney, 2000; Pinker, 1997; Pope, 2000; Wright, 1994.

  56. Dawkins, 1983; Dawkins, 1986; Gould, 1980; Maynard Smith, 1975/1993; Ridley, 1986; Williams, 1966.

  57. Dawkins, 1983; Dawkins, 1986; Maynard Smith, 1975/1993; Ridley, 1986; Williams, 1966.

  58. The improved metaphor “megalomania-cal gene” was suggested by the philosopher Colin McGinn.

  59. Etcoff, 1999.

  60. Frank, 1988; Haidt, in press; Trivers, 1971.

  61. Daly & Wilson, 1988; Frank, 1988.

  62. McGuinness, 1997; Pinker, 1994.

  63. Brown, 1991; Brown, 2000.

  64. Baron-Cohen, 1995; Hirschfeld & Gel-man, 1994; Spelke, 1995.

  65. Boyd & Silk, 1996; Calvin & Bickerton, 2000; Kingdon, 1993; Klein, 1989; Mithen, 1996.

  66. Gallistel, 1992; Hauser, 1996; Hauser, 2000; Trivers, 1985.

  67. James, 1890/1950, vol. 2, chap. 24.

  68. Freeman, 1983; Freeman, 1999.

  69. Wrangham & Peterson, 1996.

  70. Wrangham & Peterson, 1996.

  71. Keeley, 1996, graph adapted by Ed Hagen from fig. 6.2 on p.90.

  72. Ghiglieri, 1999; Keeley, 1996; Wrangham & Peterson, 1996.

  73. Ember, 1978. See also Ghiglieri, 1999; Keeley, 1996; Knauft, 1987; Wrangham & Peterson, 1996.

  74. Divale, 1972; see Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1989, p.323, for discussion.

  75. Bamforth, 1994; Chagnon, 1996; Daly & Wilson, 1988; Divale, 1972; Edgerton, 1992; Ember, 1978; Ghiglieri, 1999; Gibbons, 1997; Keeley, 1996; Kingdon, 1993; Knauft, 1987; Krech, 1994; Krech, 1999; Wrangham & Peterson, 1996.

  76. Axelrod, 1984; Brown, 1991; Ridley, 1997; Wright, 2000.

  77. Brown, 1991.

  Chapter 4: Culture Vultures

  1. Borges, 1964, p.30.

  2. Pinker, 1984a.

  3. Boyer, 1994; Hirschfeld & Gelman, 1994; Norenzayan & Atran, in press; Schaller & Crandall, in press; Sperber, 1994; Talmy, 2000; Tooby & Cosmides, 1992.

  4. Adams et al., 2000.

  5. Tomasello, 1999.

  6. Baron-Cohen, 1995; Karmiloff-Smith et al, 1995.

  7. Rapin, 2001.

  8. Baldwin, 1991.

  9. Carpenter, Akhtar, & Tomasello, 1998.

  10. Meltzoff, 1995.

  11. Pinker, 1994; Pinker, 1996; Pinker, 1999.

  12. Campbell & Fairey, 1989; Frank, 1985; Kelman, 1958; Latané & Nida, 1981.

  13. Deutsch & Gerard, 1955.

  14. Harris, 1985.

  15. Cronk, 1999; Cronk, Chagnon, & Irons, 2000.

  16. Pinker, 1999, chap. 10.

  17. Searle, 1995.

  18. Sperber, 1985; Sperber, 1994.

  19. Boyd & Richerson, 1985; Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman, 1981; Durham, 1982; Lumsden & Wilson, 1981.

  20. Cavalli-Sforza, 1991; Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman, 1981.

  21. Toussaint-Samat, 1992.

  22. Degler, 1991.

  23. Sowell, 1996, p.378. See also Sowell, 1994, and Sowell, 1998.

  24. Diamond, 1992; Diamond, 1998.

  25. Diamond, 1997.

  26. Putnam, 1973.

  27. Chomsky, 1980, p.227; Marr, 1982; Tinbergen, 1952.

  28. Pinker, 1999.

  Chapter 5: The Slate’s Last Stand

  1. Venter et al., 2001.

  2. See, e.g., the contributors to Rose & Rose, 2000.

  3. R. McKie, in The Guardian, February 11, 2001. See also S. J. Gould, “Humbled by the genome’s mysteries,” New York Times, February 19, 2001.

  4. The Observer, February 11, 2001.

  5. E. Pennisi, “The human genome,” Science, 291, 2001, 1177–1180; see pp. 1178–1179.

  6. “Gene count,” Science, 295, 2002, p.29; R. Mishar, “Biotech CEO says map missed much of genome,” Boston Globe, April 9, 2001; Wright et al., 2001.

  7. Claverie, 2001; Szathmáry, Jordán, & Pál, 2001; Venter et al., 2001.

  8. Szathmáry, Jordán, & Pál, 2001.

  9. Claverie, 2001.

  10. Venter et al., 2001.

  11. Evan Eichler, quoted by G. Vogel, “Objection #2: Why sequence the junk?” Science, 291, 2001, p.1184.

  12. Elman et al., 1996; McClelland, Rumelhart, & the PDP Research Group, 1986; McLeod, Plunkett, & Rolls, 1998; Pinker, 1997, pp. 98–111; Rumelhart, McClelland, & the PDP Research Group, 1986.

  13. Anderson, 1993; Fodor & Pylyshyn, 1988; Hadley, 1994a; Hadley, 1994b; Hummel & Holyoak, 1997; Lachter & Bever, 1988; Marcus, 1998; Marcus, 2001a; McCloskey & Cohen, 1989; Minsky & Papert, 1988; Shastri & Ajjanagadde, 1993; Smolensky, 1995; Sougné, 1998.

  14. Berent, Pinker, & Shimron, 1999; Marcus et al., 1995; Pinker, 1997; Pinker, 1999; Pinker, 2001a; Pinker & Prince, 1988.

  15. Pinker, 1997, pp. 112–131.

  16. Pinker, 1999. See also Clahsen, 1999; Marcus, 2001a; Marslen-Wilson & Tyler, 1998; Pinker, 1991.

  17. See Marcus et al., 1995, and Marcus, 2001a, for examples.

  18. Hinton & Nowlan, 1987; Nolfi, Elman, & Parisi, 1994.

  19. For examples, see Hummel & Bieder-man, 1992; Marcus, 2001a; Shastri, 1999; Smolensky, 1990.

  20. Deacon, 1997; Elman et al., 1996; Hard-castle & Buller, 2000; Panskepp & Panskepp, 2000; Quartz & Sejnowski, 1997. r />
  21. Elman et al, 1996, p.108.

  22. Quartz & Sejnowski, 1997, pp. 552, 555.

  23. Maguire et al., 2000.

  24. E. Κ. Miller, 2000.

  25. Sadato et al., 1996.

  26. Neville & Bavelier, 2000; Petitto et al., 2000.

  27. Pons et al., 1991; Ramachandran & Blakeslee, 1998.

  28. Curtiss, de Bode, & Shields, 2000; Stromswold, 2000.

  29. Catalano & Shatz, 1998; Crair, Gillespie, & Stryker, 1998; Katz & Shatz, 1996; Miller, Keller, & Stryker, 1989.

  30. Sharma, Angelucci, & Sur, 2000; Sur, 1988; Sur, Angelucci, & Sharma, 1999.

  31. For related arguments, see Geary & Huffman, 2002; Katz & Crowley, 2002; Katz & Shatz, 1996; Katz, Weliky, & Crowley, 2000; Marcus, 2001b.

  32. R. Restak, “Rewiring” (Review of The talking cure by S. C. Vaughan), New York Times Book Review, June 22, 1997, pp. 14–15.

  33. D. Milmore,” ‘Wiring’ the brain for life,” Boston Globe, November 2, 1997, pp. N5–N8.

  34. William Jenkins, quoted in A. Ellin, “Can ‘neurobics’ do for the brain what aerobics do for the lungs?” New York Times, October 3, 1999.

  35. Quotations from A. Ellin, “Can ‘neurobics’ do for the brain what aerobics do for the lungs?” New York Times, October 3, 1999.

  36. G. Kolata, “Muddling fact and fiction in policy,” New York Times, August 8, 1999.

  37. 37.Bruer, 1997; Bruer, 1999.

  38. 38.R. Saltus, “Study shows brain adaptable,” Boston Globe, April 20, 2000.

  39. Van Essen & Deyoe, 1995, p.388.

  40. Crick & Koch, 1995.

  41. 41. Bishop, Coudreau, & O’Leary, 2000; Bourgeois, Goldman-Rakic, & Rakic, 2000; Chalupa, 2000; Katz, Weliky, & Crowley, 2000; Levitt, 2000; Miyashita-Lin et al., 1999; Rakic, 2000; Rakic, 2001; Verhage et al., 2000; Zhou & Black, 2000.

  42. See the references cited in the preceding note, and also Geary & Huffman, 2002; Krubitzer & Huffman, 2000; Preuss, 2000; Preuss, 2001; Tessier-Lavigne & Goodman, 1996.

  43. Geary & Huffman, 2002; Krubitzer & Huffman, 2000; Preuss, 2000; Preuss, 2001.

  44. D. Normile, “Gene expression differs in human and chimp brains,” Science, 292, 2001, pp. 44–45.

  45. Kaas, 2000, p.224.

  46. Hardcastle & Buller, 2000; Panksepp & Panksepp, 2000.

  47. Gu & Spitzer, 1995.

  48. Catalano & Shatz, 1998; Crair, Gillespie, & Stryker, 1998; Katz & Shatz, 1996.