(Part 1) Discourse I: The Dominance of the Blank Slate Theory

In his book The Blank Slate, Stephen Pinker argues that “every society must operate with a theory of human nature” and that “our intellectual mainstream is committed”

to the notion of the blank slate.

How and why has this preference for the blank slate come about and what social and political factors are involved in its continuing promotion?

(PART 2) Discourse II: Plato and Locke on the Blank Slate

In “Phaedo,” Plato gives an early argument against the conception of the human mind as a blank slate. He argues that when we learn something we are recollecting the

knowledge we gained before we were born. In contrast, John Locke takes the position that the human mind is a blank slate and that we gain all knowledge through sense

experience.

Compare and evaluate these two positions by first clearly stating the essential points of each philosopher’s position, and then explaining which theory you find more

compelling. Support your evaluation with reason, logic and/or evidence.

Below are books used for course for this modules work and assignments.

Read Locke, J. (1690). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Bk. II, Ch 1, #2.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080705064826/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/LocHuma.html

Read Pinker, S. (2002). Part I “The Blank Slate, the Noble Savage, and the Ghost in the Machine”, pp. 1-102 in The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. New

York: Penguin.

Read Cleverley, J. & Philips, D.C. (1986). Ch. 2 “The Child and the Environment” and Ch. 8 “The Conditioned Child”.

http://www.grtbooks.com/exitfram.asp?idx=2&yr=-427&aa=PL&at=J&ref=plato&URL=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170&query=head%3D

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