The Difference of Man and the Difference it Makes (Humans)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Wednesday, July 01, 2009, 15:00 (5622 days ago) @ John Clinch

On the "blank slate" concept (a pernicous, politically-driven conclusion which finds no basis in reality), I thoroughly recommend The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker. In the book, he demolishes the fashionable idea, now thankfully on the decline, that there is no such thing as human nature. The book ends with an unanswerable list of 400 constants - features of humanity that apply across all cultures, as diverse as Australian aboriginal and Norwegian.
> - Trust me... the main reason I'm reading this book is because I don't believe in the blank-slate concept. However, the suggestion that there is no human nature sounds about as vacuous, so I'll have to chalk this book on the list as well. - > He also trashes two other rather stupid ideas - the Noble Savage (i.e Rousseau's idea that it in an state of "nature" it was all perfect before civilisation and the state corrupted us) and the Ghost in the Machine (i.e. dualism, that our mind is a substance apart from our brains - an idea, I note in passing, that seems to exert a grip on several bloggers on this site).
> 
> Very strongly recommended - and a rollicking read too. - I've noticed that tendency as well, but in the sense of mind and matter, you only need to talk about Phineas Gage. - > 
> [dhw - your magic trick hasn't worked: I will answer your fascinating and multi-layered question - I just haven't decided quite how yet!).