About this title: Widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading experts on language and the workings of the mind, Pulitzer Prize finalist Pinker has now undertaken the most ambitious and controversial work of his career--a brilliant reexamination of the concept of human nature.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Viking
Date Published: 2002-01-01
ISBN-13:9780965491730ISBN:0965491730
Description: Very Good. *Binding is tight and square. Text is clean, bright and unmarked. Has some light edge and corner wear. Careful packaging and fast shipping. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Viking
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780965491730ISBN:0965491730
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. 509 pgs in vg condition w/some wear on edges; cover has slight wear on edges, no crease in spine. read more
Edition: Reprint.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Penguin Putnam, New York
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780670031511ISBN:0670031518
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Beautiful near-mint book and dust jacket. Only the slightest signs of having been read. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 528 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Penguin Putnam
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780670031511ISBN:0670031518
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Spine straight, binding tight, mild amt reader marks, no remainder/library marks, covers/pgs flat w/sharp corners, very slight shelf wear. 509 numbered pgs. Audience: General/trade. Photos or other information available by e-mail. Daily orders/e-mail responses. E-mail confirmation of shipment. Check our feedback. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Penguin Putnam
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780670031511ISBN:0670031518
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. ~clean text, tight binding, light wear to exterior. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 528 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780670031511ISBN:0670031518
Description: Very Good in Very Good + jacket. Book. 8vo-over 7"-9" tall. Very Good Plus Hardcover Quarto in a Very Good Plus Jacket. Aside from the gift inscription on the FEP, this book is pretty nearly Fine. A little bumping of the spine ends. The jacket has a little edgewear and rubbing. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Date Published: 2003-08-01
ISBN-13:9780142003343ISBN:0142003344
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780142003343. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780140276053ISBN:014027605X
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Allen Lane
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780713992564ISBN:0713992565
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
"I cannot believe that Pinker is still a Harvard Professor. His apolitically correct views must be getting him in trouble with the PC crowds there. I guess genius in the social sciences allows you to freely express yourself, even in Harvard. Larry Summers must be envious.
Great book, probably the best I've read in the social sciences. Maybe I'm just being swayed by my own confirmation biases, but I learned more about human nature in this book than the wasted times I spent in psychology classes.
Great book, probably the best I've read in the social sciences. Maybe I'm just being swayed by my own confirmation biases, but I learned more about human nature in this book than the numerous wasted time I spent in psych classes."
"I could only make it halfway through this book before being unable to read another page. Honestly, how many people still believe that it's either environment or genes that affect our nature? I would like to think that the majority of people believe it's a factor of both as I do. Genes take you so far and environment does the rest. Anyway, it initially was an interesting idea for a book, so I gave it a read. Pinker was quick to say that environment played a role along with biology, but he really only mentions environment a few times in the whole of 220 pages. He focuses soooo much on biology that he seems just like the people he's trying to deride. I suffered through half of the book before giving up."
"Provocative exploration of genetics, cognition and academic warfare
This book covers a lot of ground: philosophy, genetics, cognition, sociology and academic infighting. Steven Pinker, writing with persuasiveness and craft, shows why the doctrine of the "Blank Slate" became so important to 20th century intellectuals that they were willing to lie, cheat, libel and even threaten those who dissented. Yet, the dissenters were right. Given what science now knows of genetics, the idea that people are blank slates at birth is simply untenable. getAbstract finds that the author, despite a few hints of personal prejudices (ah, there's human nature again), does an excellent job of grappling with enormously challenging subjects."
"Pinker took on the task of challenging two ideas that have shaped (or misshaped) contemporary thought about social issues: the blank slate, the noble savage.And he spends a chapter or two debunking another idea: the ghost in the machine.
The idea that humans are a blank slate, infinitely malleable, with capabilities that are limited only by the environment in which they are raised, is one that is oddly appealing across a broad political spectrum, but especially to a certain variety of neo-Marxists. A blank slate can be molded in socially desirable ways, thus enabling profound social change and improvement. A blank slate could be taught to abjure violence and racism, greed and sloth. Moreover, all blank slates are equal: men and women, and people of all ethnicities would have identical capability.
But humans are evolved creatures, with abilities shaped by that evolutionary history. And being evolved, there are variations in ability between individuals and, possibly, between groups. So basing one's values or political agenda on the idea that such variations are solely induced by culture and environment is risky: what do you do when the science is in and it conflicts with the foundation of your values? Values are values: compassion, empathy, a desire for justice and equality under the law, etc.; none of these depend in any essential way on the idea that every individual is exactly identical in ability.
Pinker gives many examples of evolutionary biologists and ethnologists who have been vilified for publishing their findings, when those findings contradict the blank slate or noble savage presumption. He explains in detail the unreasoning and unreasonable basis of those attacks. He hammers home the idea that (unreasoned) attacks on scientific findings can lead to no good. If public policy is based on false ideas of human nature, bad policy will result."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
