1.What is the idea of the “blank slate”?
2.What are some of the reasons to doubt that our minds are “blank slates”?
3. What are some of the political or social appeals of the “blank slate” idea?
4. What evidence from the area of parenting supports Pinker’s theory that we are influenced by genetics and heredity?
5.Pinker is essentially arguing that all humans are influenced by both nature and nurture. We are born with some aspects and we learn others through socialization. Do you agree or disagree with his theory? Why or why not?

Question

nettym · Answer

1) What is the idea of the “blank slate”?
The blank slate is theory of human nature in modern intellectual life stating that humans are shaped entirely by their experiences and not by any preexisting biological mechanisms.

2) What are some of the reasons to doubt that our minds are “blank slates”?
Some reasons to doubt that our minds are blank slates are Common sense, and or cultural universals.

3) What are some of the political or social appeals of the “blank slate” idea?
The blank slate would imply that everybody is inherently equivalent and it would take into consideration the likelihood of making a superior society through socialization.

4)  What evidence from the area of parenting supports Pinker’s theory that we are influenced by genetics and heredity?
    ¨They're useless because they don't control for heritability. They measure some correlation between what the parents do, how the children turn out and assume a causal relation: that the parenting shaped the child¨

5) Pinker is essentially arguing that all humans are influenced by both nature and nurture. We are born with some aspects and we learn others through socialization. Do you agree or disagree with his theory? Why or why not?
 We are born with some aspects and we learn others through socialization.Such as, a variety of stimulus to encourage/discourage behavior, beliefs, and values. I agree with the theory. I think that influences by both nature (DNA, genes) and nurture ( learning through socialization).

nettym · Answer

Hope this helped !