In the chapter about politics in “The Blank Slate”, Steven Pinker describes intellectual conflicts between the left and right and points out that they lead, largely, to a different theory about the human nature. The Left usually takes on a Utopic Vision, by which human natures is supposedly infinitely adaptable, whereas the Right adopts the Tragic Vision, which assumes human nature to be fixed and possesses a multitude of negative characteristics such as selfishness or violence tendency.
In this century’s old dispute, socio-biology and evolutionary psychology sparked controversies after providing scientific evidence for the Tragic Vision. Evolutionary psychology is not political in itself, some pieces of evidence undermining Right’s fundamentals (e.g. optimism in the capacity of some evolved individuals to endure a hunter-gatherer life and to pursue their own interests in the modern world. (Vlad Tarko presents)
To read: Steven Pinker – The Blank Slate. Politics. (selections)
