The and now

Thursday, March 4, 2004

A column in this newspaper not long ago reported on a new book, "The Blank Slate: The Modem Denial of Human Nature," by Steven Pinker. It "challenges the foundational principle of modem liberalism:" that human life is determined by environment, not heredity, "nurture," not "nature"; that human ills are the results of "ignorance, discrimination, poverty, and disease," not some biologically immutable "human nature," with a built-in propensity for evil; and that thus "education, legislation, and alteration of environment can produce men like gods."

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