Intro:
In capitului about the politics of The ' Blank Slate ', Steven Pinker describes the intellectual differences between left and right and show that to a great extent these divergences are reduced to a different theory about human nature. The left usually adopt the Utopian Vision, as it implies that human nature it's infinitely malleable, while adopting the tragic Vision right, in which human nature is fixed and has a wide array of attributes like selfishness and willingness toward violence. Rising controversy of Sociobiology and evolutionary psychology came primarily because they have failed as bite-n milk in this centuries-old dispute, bringing scientific evidence in favor of the Tragic Vision. Evolutionary psychology has no political content, however, undercutting some of the discoveries including some of the fundamental ideas of Association (such as optimism regarding the ability of some individuals evolve to cope with the life of the Hunter and gatherer to watch its own interests in the modern world). (Presents: Bobby Van)
The text to read:
Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate. Politics. (selection)
Handout:
