concerning the significance between right and wrong or acceptable and despicable behavior. In the article "The Moral Instinct" written by psychologist Steven Pinker‚ the ideology of morality as a sixth sense is analyzed as it pertains to everyday life. Pinker describes how one has learned to accept the standards of morals subconsciously. Pinker makes a claim that we tend to make excuses as opposed to utilizing reason when settling on ethical judgements. He illustrates this with situations regarding
Premium Morality Ethics Human
Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate has caused a shift in the idea of human condition. It is safe to say that Pinker is unconvinced that there has been such a drastic intellectual transformation. Human nature‚ he says‚ is ’a modern taboo’. It’s the thing ’that distorts our science and scholarship‚ our public discourse and our day-to-day lives. Not only are ’claims about human nature less dangerous than many people think’‚ Pinker argues‚ but ’the denial of human nature can be more dangerous than people
Premium Evolutionary psychology Human nature Human
Steven Pinker has a voice all his own- engaging and amiable‚ but also informative and scientific. His light style provides an interesting contradiction to the heaviness of the topic he presents to us. It’s a tough question: where does morality stem from? Is it genetic? Does it come from the structure of our brains? We don’t get an answer‚ per se‚ allowing us to come to our own conclusions and wrestle with the evidence for ourselves. However‚ as we the audience read the essay‚ it doesn’t take a particularly
Premium Morality Critical thinking Ethics
Nicholas Carr vs. Steven Pinker There is no doubt about it that in today’s generation the Internet is one of the best phenomenal creations invented. By simply having a computer‚ cell phone‚ tablet‚ ect‚ anyone and everyone can access the Internet. But can this powerful yet simple creation have a drastic effect on how the new generation operates today? The entire world is rapidly becoming obsessed; everywhere you look you’re bound to see something related to the Internet. Search engines‚ texting
Premium Human brain Brain
In “My Genome‚ My Self‚” Steven Pinker wrote about how he was getting his genome tested and where exactly personality traits came from. I thought that this essay was very interesting because it had a lot of information in it‚ with facts from all different sides of the spectrum. Pinker talked about the sciences of how geneticists proved that every trait a person can have can be linked to genes. He also talked about some part of personality traits are part environmental‚ yet not the majority. Last
Free Psychology Nature versus nurture Genetics
The article “Mass Over Mass Media” is written by Steven Pinker. Pinker is a professor at Harvard University who teaches in the Psychology department and focuses on visual cognition which is the information interpreted visually by the brain‚ and psychology in language. Visual Cognition is the study of the brain that explains the way the brain interprets and understands foreign language and objects in a visual way. When the brain obtains information visually‚ it processes this information by translating
Premium Psychology Cognition Mind
The article being referenced was written by Steven Pinker and is titled “In Defense of Dangerous Ideas” and was published on July 15‚ 2007 as a preface to his book “What is your Dangerous Idea?: Today’s Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable”. The article tells how in the past quarter century people have had new dangerous ideas that Pinker says our society is ill equipped to deal with. He also explains why these ideas are considered “dangerous”. He states that the acceptance of these ideas would come
Premium Critical thinking Psychology Cognition
101 17 September 2010 Steven Pinker (pg.115 1-6) 1. Steven Pinker is giving the reader examples of hypocrisy and how Language can be used to transpire different meanings. 2. Several categories are provided in this essay. The reason was to demonstrate the different ways language can be used to communicate different meanings. For example‚ on numerous occasions I’ve been ask out for a drink when the real meaning was a date or even more in some situations. Mr. Pinker took the examples to extreme
Premium Goodyear Blimp Political correctness Language
The blank slate‚ written by Steven Pinker; an experimental psychologist and cognitive scientist‚ examines the ideas behind the ongoing debate regarding human nature and the theories of nature and nurture. The book begins with and in depth outline of the three doctrines of the nurture debate‚ the first being “The blank slate” which asserts that individuals are “born void of all characters without any ideas” as stated by John Locke (1632-1704) and that behavior is learnt from society and those around
Premium Nature versus nurture Evolutionary psychology Tabula rasa
A Critique on The Blank Slate‚ The Noble Savage and The Ghost in the Machine. There are three doctrines which have attained sacred status in modern intellectual life. The Blank Slate‚ a loose translation of the medieval Latin term tabula rasa‚ scraped tablet‚ commonly attributed to John Locke which delves into the opposing of political status quos and social arrangements‚ stating mainly that the mind is like a sheet of white paper void of all characters and ideas‚ furnished with words through
Premium Mind Thought Tabula rasa