There are three persistent myths in popular western thought, they are:
The blank slate, every human is born with a brain that is as a blank white paper, upon which society will create a mind through impressions. Environment, not genetics forms the human mind.
The noble savage,
"natural man" or man as we find him in prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups are peaceful, non-aggressive, a real saint.
The ghost in the machine
, there is a soul inside the brain that "operates" the brain. It is this soul, this ghost in the machine, that feels and makes judgments.Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology and director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT, refutes the three common myths by aid of reasoning and solid proofs from modern science.
There is no blank slate. Evolution has formed our brain into something useful for handling the world our ancestors lived in.
There are special circuits and areas dedicated to predetermined functions as dictated by our genes. We are born with vision and audio processing circuits, with language processors in place, etc.
Early humans were no saints. There were continuos wars with neighboring tribes, rapes, torture, and yes genocide (how do you think the Neanderthals died out?). The greatest innovation in human history was the enlargement of the circle of ones loyalty from ones family and tribe to all humans that were willing to do the same. The idea that there are fundamental rights applicable to all mankind is the foundation of all moral and ethics upon which our modern civilization rests.
We humans are created individually unique by our genes. It is this difference between us that makes us all so valuable to one another.
Anything negative about the book? Well, it is a bit wordy and 200 pages would have sufficed for me instead of the 509 pages that one now has to plow through. And again, the paper quality is poor as so often is the case with paperback editions. The paper has to much bending stiffness creating what among printers is called a mouse trap book. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in who we are as a species, and what makes up our minds.
You buy the book at www.amazon.com
