The Blank Slate
The Modern Denial of Human Nature
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The Blank Slate
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Narrated by:
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Victor Bevine
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By:
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Steven Pinker
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Recently many people have assumed that we are blank slates shaped by our environment. But this denies the heart of our being: human nature.
Violence is not just a product of society; male and female minds are different; the genes we give our children shape them more than our parenting practices. To acknowledge our innate abilities, Pinker shows, is not to condone inequality but to understand the very foundations of humanity.
©2003 Steven Pinker (P)2019 Penguin AudioCritic Reviews
"A passionate defence of the enduring power of human nature...both life-affirming and deeply satisfying." (Daily Telegraph)
"Brilliant...enjoyable, informative, clear, humane." (New Scientist)
"Startling.... This is a breath of air for a topic that has been politicized for too long." (Economist)
What listeners say about The Blank Slate
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Darko Jovanovic
- 03-09-2022
Thoughtful, clever, funny, fascinating
One of the best books I've ever read (ok, listened to). Steven Pinker takes difficult and complex subjects and provides simple yet indepth explanations about human nature and their impact on these topics. The book exudes common sense, which is sorely lacking in today's far left and far right ideologies.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Emir
- 02-06-2021
really good, very extensive
really good, difficult to give a detailed review becuase its a long book which covers many topics. think of it like multiple different but related books, each needing to be read in order. the end result is you will learn a lot and won't regret the time you invested in it
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Cliff
- 24-10-2022
Common sense backed by science
A thorough examination and data backed rebuttal of so much of the ideological BS we find ourselves wading through these days. The latter parts of the book were more enjoyable but built on the earlier parts. As is often the case, the people who really need to read books like this, won’t. None so blind … Great work by Pinker.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- CQ
- 16-06-2023
Kind of average
The first couple of chapters were hard to get into, I was tempted to stop listening. But I persisted with the book and it got more interesting after that. Some parts were good, others seemed quite biased as if the author was pushing their own agenda. So overall not great and not terrible.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ben
- 30-01-2020
Robotic reading
What a shame I found the content of this book really difficult to engage in and absorb with the robot reading.
I’ve enjoyed Pinker’s previous books, however, struggled to listen through this this presentation.
Can you keep the next book human?
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Gerrit Gmel
- 02-05-2020
A good book, but way too wordy for its content
The author knows what he’s talking about, the book is well researched and the topic exhaustively discussed. It is however distractingly long and academic. It appears to me the author loves to hear himself speak, and to lecture us all on pretty much everything. The topic is delicate and approached in a very elegant way, but I often find myself thinking mid chapter: what are you trying to tell me?!
The narrator of the audiobook did not go well with me, i found the tone of voice to be patronising and lecturing which I found counter productive. I would recommend reading the book rather than listening to the audiobook.
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