In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits-a doctrine held by many intellectuals during the past century-denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts. Injecting calm and rationality into debates that are notorious for ax-grinding and mud-slinging, Pinker shows the importance of an honest acknowledgment of human nature based on science and common sense.

Besides challenging conventional wisdom about how we think, cognitive scientist Steven Pinker has a talent for conveying his findings about the brain, language and perception with a clarity and cleverness that has brought him a following outside his field.More About the Author var so = new FlashObject("http://natalie.feedroom.com/barnesandnoble/natoneclip/Player.swf","Player", "240", "252", "8", "#FFFFFF");so.addVariable("skin", "natoneclip");so.addVariable("site", "barnesandnoble");so.addVariable("fr_story", "87e421e0f096cf21a0013c9fa2ab3cadc2cf5201");so.addVariable("hostURL", document.location.href);so.addParam("quality", "high");so.addParam("allowFullScreen", "true");so.addParam("menu", "false");so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");so.write("flashcontent");

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