BIOLOGY 443-01 - Current Topics in Biology. Spring 2003
The Blank Slate. The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker
Place and Time: 1:10-3:00PM, Fridays, Lewis Hall 306
Instructor: Matt Lavin (email), office ABS 308
SCHEDULE
17 January - Introduction: Are there
human natures? If so, what are they and
why are they important to know.
24 January - Introduction: human
nature.
31 January - Introduction: human
nature.
7 February - Chapters 1-3, pp. 1-58. Discussion leaders: Matthew Broughton and Deanne Stookey
14 February - Chapters 4-5, pp. 59-102. Discussion leaders: Christopher Cairoli and Timothy Seipel
21 February - Chapters 6-7, pp. 103-135. Discussion leaders: Mark Henderson and Amelia Nugent
28 February - Chapters 8-9, pp. 137-173. Discussion leaders: David Moore and Christine Neigel
7 March - Chapters 10-11, pp. 174-194. Discussion leaders: Seth Hendrix and Deanne Stookey
21 March - Chapters 12-13, pp. 195-240. Discussion leaders: Matthew Broughton and Timothy Seipel
28 March - Chapters 14-15, pp. 241-280. Discussion leaders: Christopher Cairoli and Amelia Nugent
4 April - Chapters 16-17, pp. 281-336. Discussion leaders: Mark Henderson and Christine Neigel
11 April - Chapters 18-19, pp. 337-399. Discussion leaders: Seth Hendrix and David Moore
25 April - Chapters 20 and Part VI, pp. 400-434. Discussion leaders: Matthew Broughton.
2 May - Summary. Each student will present a ten-minute lecture on: Are there human natures (if any), and if so, what are they and why might they be important to know.
Everyone will be expected to participate in the weekly discussions. Each week, two members of the class will present a short lecture on the pertinent chapters and lead the subsequent discussion - up and in front of the class. The final grade you receive in this class will reflect your ability to articulate your ideas to the class. Integrating the topics of the present chapters with those of past or future chapters or of outside readings will be evaluated. Because your grade will be derived only from your verbal participation, make sure you are ready to perform before coming to class. Participation with only an anecdotal statement or two each time may get a grade as high as a C. The Blank Slate provides many opportunities to explore the impact of the biological sciences on society at large, so the task of presenting the ideas and arguments in the book and integrating them with material you have taken from other classes or readings should be easy. Meeting with me prior to your week of leading discussion and lecturing would be an excellent idea.
Notes
from lectures and discussions
17 January
The historical focus of this particular class (Biology 443-01) has always centered on human nature. Since the spring of 1997, we have read such books as The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker, The Red Queen by Matt Ridley, Consilience by Edward Wilson, and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. These are a few of the recent excellent books that have dealt what human nature potentially is an how an understanding of it can impact us as individuals and as a society. The Blank Slate is one of the most recent in this line of best selling books on human nature.
Louis Menand’s critique of The Blank Slates raises some common criticisms of the field of biology (and other sciences) when the study of human nature is involved. In my opinion, such criticisms that I have come across commonly elsewhere include:
1. Science can become an arbiter of ethics (beginning 1st paragraph).
2. Biology imposes itself brute force into areas once restricted to the humanities (beginning 5th paragraph).
3. Generalized findings in animal behavior are too readily applied to humans (paragraph beginning with “The insistence on deprecating the efficacy of socialization leads Pinker into absurdities that he handles …” – 2nd full paragraph on page 98 of the hard copy of the article in The New Yorker).
4. Scientific investigations into human behavior yield what is already held as common sense (paragraph beginning with “The other trouble with evolutionary psychology is that it is not really psychology.” – 5th full paragraph on page 98 of the hard copy of the article in The New Yorker).
5. Behavior is built upon too simplistic psychological or biological models (paragraph beginning with “What is personality, though?” – 2nd full paragraph on page 99 of the hard copy of the article in The New Yorker).
6. Common innate behaviors fundamental to all humans may not be worth knowing compared to unique individual behaviors (paragraph beginning with “As for Komar and Melamid’s paint-by-polling: it is the are-world equivalent of the Science Times’ ideal face.” – 3rd full paragraph on page 101 of the hard copy of the article in The New Yorker).
Bertrand Russell’s article, The Value of Philosophy, was written in the early 1900’s, yet deals with issues raised by Menand.
1. Sciences does take over fields of study in wholesale fashion once held by the humanities, in particular philosophy (e.g., consider the history of astronomy, mathematics, physics, and the study of the human mind).
2. The “practical men” stereotype is described as if it is an innate human nature. “Practical men” are characterized by Russell as tending to only basic needs, habitual beliefs of age and nation, prejudices of common sense, self-confinement to a narrow world of instinctive interests, and subject to the tyranny of custom. Russell is implicit that these are base animal instincts and should be risen above.
3. Unanswerable questions (like many of those currently in the field of human nature) are justifiably asked and pursued if only because they allow us human to rise above our base animal tendencies.
The details and validity of these commonly held views and criticisms (especially of Menand) should be assessed by each student and discussed in class.
24 January
Edward Wilson’s article on the biological basis of morality: Epigenetic rules are mental algorithms with a genetic/environment origin that bias behavior in one direction or another. Understanding and codifying various of these mental algorithms in humans could serve as a foundation for defining moral and ethical behavior.
Biophilia is a potential example of a mental algorithm, an understanding of which may help resolve the naturalistic fallacy (or naturalistic problem as Wilson would like to call it). The naturalistic fallacy/problem centers on nature being ascribed qualities that may not be real or that require more thought than humans are willing to provide (e.g., nature as an arbiter of ethical dilemmas - the "is" versus "ought" arguments).
Behaviors codified as immoral (in the past or by some segment of society) that are arbitrary (not based on or counter to innate human behavior):
· to ponder nothingness, including the integer 0
· to treat fellow citizens as less than material equals
· to question intent of higher authority
· to engage in foreign trade
· to extract stem cells from embryos
General biases in animal behavior caused in part by:
Sexual selection: parental care proportional to mate choosiness
Pseudoaltruism: altruism extended to kin
Reciprocal altruism: altruism extended to reciprocators (usually familiar and similar individuals)
Cheater detection: a barrier to defection in a system involving altruism (requires brain capacity recognition of individuals and history of encounters)
Dominance hierarchies (and other dynamic interactions modeled by game theory): adaptations of conspecific individuals (e.g., submission)
Tribalism: pseudo- and reciprocal altruism combined with cheater detection and dominance hierarchies
Cultural and linguistic elaboration: the quintessential human behaviors?
Religiosity: combination of all of the above, and more? From Wilson's article: "The formidable influence of the religious drive is based on far more, however, than just the validation of morals. A great subterranean river of the mind, it gathers strength from a broad spread of tributary emotions."
31
January
The behavioral concepts of conditional altruism (e.g., reciprocity and kin altruism), cheater detection, and evolutionary stable strategies (ESS; particularly where submission is expected to occur in a social hierarchy) are at least three of the more important used to explain at least some of the religious behaviors expressed in humans. E.O. Wilson’s statement underscores this: “There is a hereditary selective advantage to membership in a powerful group united by devout belief and purpose.” Importantly, all of these behavioral concepts are applied to all social animals (mainly the mammals, teleost fishes, insects, and birds), and the inference is these shared similarities within each of these groups is the result of inheritance from a common ancestor (i.e., homologous) that traces back in time hundreds of millions of years. There is little doubt, therefore, that they are innate qualities or epigenetic rules of the human mind because we derive out of the mammal lineage.
The overall point here is that the human mind is much more predisposed to religion and religious behavior and than to scientific thought. The readings, Hutton’s Purpose and Nonmoral Nature illustrate this by depicting how scientific progress through much of human history was carried out within a religious framework. “Natural Theology,” “final purpose,” and “understanding God through the study of his creation” illustrate an innate religious quality of the human mind if only because our collective mind operated in such a fashion through most of human history. Secular science, instituted by Darwin in the late 1800’s was not fully adopted until the middle of the 1900’s in what was referred to as the evolutionary synthesis (Mayr, E. and W. B. Provine, eds. 1998, The evolutionary synthesis: Perspectives on the unification of biology, 2nd edition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass). E.O. Wilson states, “The essence of humanity’s spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another.” In sum, the study of human nature will be difficult because it will require a scientific approach to the understanding of the human mind. That is, the human mind will be studying itself in a manner it wasn’t evolutionarily prepared for.
6
February
Chapter 1, The Official Theory (summarized by Deanne). The three "official theories" are the blank slate, the noble savage, and the ghost and the machine. The blank slate, also known as empiricism is, by Locke's definition, taken to mean that all ideas are grounded in experiences. This was also to show that all people are born equal with no one being innately inferior or superior. The noble savage, also known as romanticism, says that society corrupts the pure and innocent "savage." The ghost in the machine, or dualism, states that the mind is separate from the body. Descartes "I think therefore I am" is related to the thought experiment where it is possible to think in terms of parts of the body being separate from the mind, but not in terms of parts of the mind, especially being separate from each other.
Chapter 2, Silly Putty (summarized by Matthew). This chapter progresses through the development and then debunking of former theories of the development of the mind. The chapter begins with Jespersen and his view that northern cultures and people were more highly developed because of their complex and technical language. This supposedly was in contrast to the simple language of non-Nordic and Germanic cultures. The chapter proceeded on to the likes of Spencer, who loosely based his ideas on Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Social Darwinism and the unimaginable wealth of Rockefeller and Carnegie resulted, as did the thought that charity and social programs would interfere with the natural order of selection. In fact, it lead to forced sterilization of the “unfit” to cleanse society of those genes. There was then a shift to the need for standardized education and that the society took on many of the responsibilities of child rearing. This was a result of the change in social attitudes that all people have an equal chance at greatness, not just privileged white males. Several theories of modern psychology are covered, including those encompassed under the Blank Slate in the mid 1800's to a theory of learning called associationism. The latter tried to explain human learning without inherent abilities, excepting that of processing input to make associations. There are no talents or abilities only the results of input. Exceptionally (for this chapter), William James in the late 1800s argued that human behaviors and emotions had to be evolved as biological adaptations. The predominant view that all our actions were conditioned responses got pushed aside, however. The research of many behaviorists suggested that human behavior could be modeled as if we were nothing but “Pigeons in a Skinner Box”. Finally, Pinker targets Boas and his students (e.g., Margaret Mead) and their theories of culture, which they stated had infinite potential. This reinforced the idea that our minds are blank slates, conditioned only by response to external stimuli.
Chapter 3, The Last Wall to Fall (Bridges 1 and 2 summarized by Deanne, 3 and 4 by Matthew). The greatest achievement of the 20th century is the unification of life, matter, and energy. The previous walls were between living/nonliving, terrestrial/celestial, and the creative past/stagnant present. The current wall is the division between mind and body, this is reinforced by the "official theory." However, there are currently several bridges that are trying to span this gap. Bridge #1- cognitive science. This bridge formed after the "cognitive revolution of the 1950's" There are 4 main ideas. 1) The mental world can be grounded in the physical world by the concepts of information, computation, and feedback. This gives rise to the computational theory of the mind. 2) The mind can't be a blank slate, because a blank slate doesn't do anything. This gives the basis for the "hard wiring" of the brain, aka neurons. 3) An infinite range of behaviors can be generated by a finite combination of programs in the mind. A limited number of algorithms are shared by all people, even if they are used in different combinations among individuals. 4) This mind is a complex system composed of many interacting parts. This shows that the mind is divisible, a concept previously thought impossible. Bridge #2 - cognitive neuroscience. The “Self” is a network of brain systems. Learning is a change in some part of the brain, and the "I" is a spin doctor that rationalizes our behaviors.(pp. 45-58 soon to be summarized by Matthew). Bridge #3 - behavioral genetics. It is pointed out a fraction of a difference between us and our primate relatives is what makes us human by giving us language and culture. The novelty of separated twins behaving so similarly leads to the argument of genetic determination of behavior, and the converse expression of differences of forced twinning, with “litter mates” behaving as differently as night and day. Bridge #4 - evolutionary biology. This represents the attempt to define behavioral traits of humans in terms of fitness. Evolutionary reasons must exist for all complex behaviors. Fitness is the key to genetic survival. Issues surrounding warfare are addressed, for example. It seems to be a human universal to go out and kill those not in your group. In spite of all of the advanced warfare that has taken place, the survival of males in modern western society is far greater than that of technologically less advanced cultures. This universal trait suggests we are more of a “savage savage” than a noble savage.
14 February
Chapter 4, Culture Vultures (summarized by Chris). Culture is something distinctly human, but the details are not necessarily innate. The hard wiring is in place that gives us the opportunity to develop culture as we grow, but we do not directly inherit the details of culture from our parents. Culture is not just a simple imitation of actions but rather seeing into the minds of the humans that perform these actions and innately reading the reasons behind it. We can look at how language adapts over time as an excellent example of the way cultures change. The only way we care going to more fully understand culture is by the coming together of multiple scientific disciplines (hierarchical reductionism).
Chapter 5, The Slate's Last Stand (summarized by Tim). Outlined are three arguments maintained by those who support views of the Blank Slate. The arguments are interpreted from modern scientific discoveries and include: sequencing of the human genome, artificial neural networks (connectionism), and experiments in neural plasticity. Pinker refutes each argument by examining carefully the scientific data and logic that was used to reach a conclusion. He counters the argument that humans are freer due to fewer genes that previously thought, with the example of the round worm as well as continuing research into introns and exons. Pinker debunks connectionism by pointing to our abilities to store information, make distinctions, compose, quantify, and perform recursion and categorical functions. A majority of the chapter is spent on the topic of neural plasticity where Pinker supports his views with the modularity of brain structure and by pointing out that environment doesn’t tell the brain what its goals are.
21 February
Chapter 6, Political Scientists (summarized by Amelia). Pinker discusses politically motivated reactions to the new sciences of human nature, in part coming from the fields of genetics and evolutionary biology. Herrnstein's 1971 IQ publication stated that as social status became less arbitrarily determined, such as by race, inheritance, etc., it would become more dependent upon native intelligence and talent. He did not imply any racial differences in these traits, but was accused of racism, received death threats, and could no longer speak at public university settings. Eckman concluded that the commonalities of facial expression implied evolutionary processes, and relatively recent common human ancestry. He was called a fascist and racist. Wilson's 1975 Sociobiology, a synthesis of animal behavior addressing such activities as communication, altruism, aggression, sex, and parenting, caused a violent response from critics. Sahlins, Gould, and Lewontin wrote rebuttals which associated Wilson with eugenics, Social Darwinism, racism, genocide, and slavery. Wilson was publicly harassed and slandered by public followers of the radical scientists (there were many). Gould, Lewontin, and Rose (the radical scientists) also attacked Dawkins. Pinker rebuts the radical scientists, points to the weaknesses of their accusations involving determinism and reductionism, and gives examples of doctored quotations they used in their attacks. The radical scientists chose to attack on individual scientists as much or more so than scientific ideas. Pinker's final example occurred in 2000 with the completion of Neel and Chagnon's 30 year study of the Yanomamo. These two were accused of racism, eugenics, and misconduct, including infecting indigenous peoples with measles. Pinker thinks these attacks were a response to Neel and Chagnon's findings about violence and mating practices, which were not in agreement with the concept of Nobel Savage. Pinker refutes these accusations in detail. All of this harassment, Pinker believes, is an attempt to uphold the Blank Slate, which can endure only if accepted as a belief system.
Chapter 7, The Holy Trinity (summarized by Mark). Pinker examines the opposition to the scientific findings from genetics, neuroscience and evolution that bear on human nature. He finely implies the Blank Slate, Noble Savage and Ghost in the Machine are The Holy Trinity because possibly because they are put on the alter by both the political left and right. Opposition to human nature spans the political spectrum from radical biologists on the left to neo-conservatives on the right. This opposition to the study of human nature (hostile at times) more aptly takes on the form of fear and loathing. Fear principally by Christian fundamentalists who see a loss of meaning to their lives, loss of choice in moral issues and deterioration of God’s ultimate authority. Loathing on the part of radical biologists simply because they do not like the non-dialectical approach of the sociobiologists. Such fear and loathing could effect the advancement of the science of human nature. At first glance, one would think that the conservative right would provide the most resistance with the likes of G. W. Bush, William F. Buckley, Robert Bork and the increasing popularity of the Intelligent Design Theory. Yet Pinker points out that against-sociobiologists are in the mainstream of science. No (sane) practicing scientist wants negative publicity, harassment, or intimidation, whether from the political right or left, or from inside or outside the field of science. However, the resistance to the study of human nature will be (and should be) short lived as new findings lead to mountains of evidence in which irrefutable facts will immerge.
28 February
Chapter 8, The Fear of Inequality (summarized by David). Pinker argues that if people are innately different then we must start different, opening the way towards discrimination. With this fear, three evils could arise; prejudice, social Darwinism, and eugenics. Pinker counters this. First, human universals (and thus probably innate behaviors), however, include the want to be treated fairly. Second, certain cases of discrimination can be justified with a cost and benefit ratio that must be weighed out carefully (e.g., use of Bayes Theorem in disease treatment). Pinker also discusses how if everyone were equal, then a lower social class would deserve their treatment in a world only influenced only by environment. Later in the chapter, Pinker goes into how people have a tendency to identify with the in-group and castigate the outgroup. In this regard, the extreme right and left behave similarly into pushing people of the outgroup into a sub-human category worthy of elimination or some other evil (the left seems to have a worse record of this activity). In this chapter, Pinker suggests that although scientist are publicly scrutinized for their research, they should not be condemned for wanting to understand human nature. Those scientists have an obligation to promote the truth of their findings without binding them to moral implications.
Chapter 9, The Fear of Imperfectability (summarized by Christine). The naturalistic fallacy in discussed at length in this chapter to illustrate a simple minded illogical way of moral reasoning. If a trait occurs naturally, it must be moral. If it is rare (unnatural), it must be immoral. The moralistic fallacy, if a behavior is moral in humans, it must be found in nature, stems from the same illogic. Such reasoning seems acceptable to many in the environmental movement, and even among certain right wing individuals (e.g., homosexuality is unnatural). Pinker point to the illogical reasoning behind all of this with many examples, such as The Golden Rule is unnatural (i.e., rare in nature) and the case of step-parenting. If step-parenting fit the common observation in social animal behavior that biological relatedness among parents and offspring is directly related to the care of offspring, this has absolutely no moral consequences for human societies. This is because humans have more considerations in deriving morals. In this case, it is the trade-off between accepting a slightly elevated rate of child abuse in a society for the vast majority of loving step-parents. Pinker finishes the chapter addressing the history of approaches taken towards creating utopian societies. He illustrates this with Le Corbusier and the seemingly totalitarian-left ideas that were implemented in his architecture. No matter what steps were taken to create an atmosphere where individuals were molded into being part of the great collective (wind-swept plazas, cafeteria-style dining commons), humans growing up under such an environment never learned to like it. Le Corbusier’s cities (e.g., Brasilia) to this day are considered detestable by those who live there. Pinker states that universal pleasures and pains that make change desirable must be acknowledged.
7 March
Chapter 10, The Fear of Determinism (summarized by Seth). Determinism in an original sense is a belief that humans have no free will. People have no control over their future and destiny. Pinker argues that responsibility for individual actions can be blamed on society for either a genetic or environmentally determined reason. He therefore identifies to fallacies that people hold when the sciences of human nature are thought to somehow take away from personal responsibility. The frist fallacy is that people tend to think that genetics and biology corrode responsibility in a way that environmental explanations don't. The second fallacy is that biological and environmental explanations are thought to corrode responsibility in a way that a belief in a soul does not. To prove his point, Pinker shows how people like to blame their genetics or their environment for poor personal choices. Pinker argues that we don't need to solve the "problem of free will," but to need to preserve personal responsibility. Many would like to put the blame and responsibility on society, but emphasizing personal responsibility is a way to constructively tap into one of the more productive sides of human nature.
Chapter 11, The Fear of Nihilism (summarized by Deanne). The last of the four fears associated with the biological view of human nature is the "fear of nihilism." With a biological view of human nature, people fear their lives will have no longer have meaning or purpose. There are two sources of this fear, religious and secular. The religious view believes that if the minds is just living matter, then there is no higher purpose in life and, importantly, immorality. Pinker argues that total self-centeredness has been shown to fall apart (I don't understand this sentence - Should it be something like, "Pinker argues that self-centeredness in not a necessary part of human nature, and indeed part of our nature is to get along with each other."?). He bolsters this argument, for example, by pointing out that young children spontaneously exhibit moral behaviors, and that religious beliefs in an afterlife have been used as excuses for many horrible acts. The secular fear is that biology seems to invalidate man's most cherished values. However he points out that cheater detection is intrinsic. We have been constantly presented with non-zero-sum games during human evolution, so getting along with each other should be innate - the Golden Rule is part of our nature.
Chapter 12, In Touch With Reality (summarized by Tim). Pinker uses Chapter 12 to make an argument for an ultimate reality. He seeks to displace the language as a “prisonhouse” myth, which was coined from a quote by Nietzsche and much beloved by postmodernism. He presents examples demonstrating human language’s relative descriptions, which fit our categorical style of thinking, and restates language is merely a way of conveying thoughts. Important to understand is that language also conveys the attitude of the person speaking. He eludes to research in which some human stereotypes prove true and uses this evidence as proof our perceptive abilities are able to distinguish an ultimate reality. In addition, different aspects change stereotypes with added information just as for all systems subject to input. This reality is however, construed by the blurring boundaries in communication and selectively limiting what is communicated.
Chapter 13, Out of Our Depths (summarized by Matt). Finally we come to the topic of the limited computational powers of our brains - limited by our evolutionary history. There hasn't been enough time for our biology to catch up with our technology. There are scientific truths that are beyond the ability of our gray computers. With distributive networks it is possible to get a super computer. Where will we go from here? Can we progress past our defined mental limits?
Chapter 14, The Many Roots of Our Suffering (summarized by Chris). Nepotistic and reciprocal altruism have their advantages and disadvantages from an individual point of view. With regard to reciprocity, if a person does decide to take the deception road instead of cooperation, then they’d better be good at lying. Cheater detection is a crucial system of reciprocal altruism, so lying straight faced is crucial if you want to be a deceiver, and the best way for you to do that is if you truly believe your own lies. Cognitive dissonance reduction is thinking whatever it takes to keep a positive self-image.
Chapter 15, The Sanctimonious Animal (summarized by Amelia). According to Pinker, each of the three systems of morality (autonomy, community, divinity) has innate flaws, leading to a dangerous potential for emotional-moral response rather than defensible moral logic. Associating status with morality or “good” with “clean” has led to unfortunate consequences such as untouchable castes, fear of gay men, and apartheid. A defensible moral position is one that logically leads to the conclusion that we have to treat others in the way that we demand they treat us.
Chapter 16, Politics (summarized by Mark). According to Pinker, temperament (attitude) drives human political affiliation and comprises observable heritable traits in the forms of selflessness, selfishness and reciprocity. Pinker examines human attitudes by comparing and contrasting the political philosophies of conservatism (tragic vision) or liberalism (utopian vision). It is these aspects of human nature that motivate the continued search for the perfect moral beliefs, an equitable economic system and infallible political ideology. As we learn more about human nature through sociobiology, we will be better equipped to advance and improve long established theories.
Chapter 17, Violence (summarized by Christine). Violence is an innate quality in humans, therefore, we should focus not on the cause of violence, but how to minimize violence. Pinker gives examples that refute the claims that violence is a learned behavior or an illness. For example, young boys are playing rough before they watch violent programs on TV. Also, the idea that violence can be cured by rehabilitation is not believable anymore. Thomas Hobbes lists the three principal causes of violence to be competition, distrust, and glory. The big question in this chapter is how people and nations can stop violence from the start before hostility takes off.
Chapter 18, Gender (summarized by David). Pinker demonstrates that sex differences are real, and not arbitrary. Many of these sexual differences are also found among other primates, and the brains of men and women are different in many ways. He talks about gender equality being a criterion for social justice and equal opportunity in employment. Pinker's points out that differences in preference rather then abilities underscores a lot of the reality of gender differences, and ultimately result in glass ceilings, variance in income levels, and gender gaps. Pinker explains the two types of Feminism: equity feminism, which posits that opportunity should not be lost because of gender affiliation, and gender feminism which makes three claims: sexual differences are socially constructed, power is the single motive in society and that groups separate us as individuals, and the groups use the power. The other difficult issue is the traditional thought that rape is not about sex but about power or dominance. He argues that to deny sexual motives is to misunderstand rape and hinders the efforts to minimize it.
Chapter 19, Children (summarized by Seth). The nature-nurture debate is over? Pinker admits that this heated debate truly isn't over, but when it comes to the question of what makes people within a society different from one another, it is over. The question of what makes people the way they are is a little harder to answer. Pinker feels that people view children as the ultimate silly putty. Teachers and parents think that they can mold and control children into being just like the image they have in their heads. Pinker shows how this is a classic Blank Slate view. He uses the three laws of behavioral genetics to prove his point. These laws include: All human behavioral traits are heritable, The effect of being raised in the same family is smaller that the effect of the genes, and a substantial portion of the variation in complex human behavioral traits in not accounted for by the effects of genes or families. Genetics accounts for half of the variation in individuals (as suggested by twin and sibling studies). Behavior geneticists have found that a shared environment is not significant enough to make a difference. It may account for 10 percent. We might conclude that families don't matter so much anymore by the second law, but Pinker shows that this is not totally the case. Some kind of unique environment causes about 50 percent of variation in children. Pinker states that many things could contribute to this. These include: An individuals' individualized parenting, birth order, peer group, society, or fate. Pinker seems to lean on the side of fate. Pinker ends this chapter by uderscoring the difference parents can make that parents in a child's happiness, and that parents and children need to have a human relationship. We don't hold their tomorrows in our hands, but we surely do hold their todays. But remember, the child really is the father of the man.
Departments of Ecology and Plant Sciences