The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a best-selling 2002 book by Steven Pinker arguing against tabula rasa models of the social sciences. Pinker argues that human behavior is substantially shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations. The book was nominated for the 2003 Aventis Prizes and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Pinker argues that modern science has challenged three "linked dogmas" that constitute the dominant view of human nature in intellectual life:
- the blank slate (the mind has no innate traits) - empiricism
- the noble savage (people are born good and corrupted by society) - romanticism
- the ghost in the machine (each of us has a soul that makes choices free from biology)[1] - mind/body dualism
