The Modern Denial of Human Nature
The mysteries of the human mind have proved a fascinating subject for millennia, as we’ve striven to understand and anticipate people's behavior.
Many of our older, popular theories about human nature came from religion: In Judeo-Christian tradition, for example, the mind is considered separate from our physical form and lives on after the body dies.
These days, science is less influenced by religion, and we’ve ended up with three main theories regarding the nature of the human mind.
The first is known as the Blank Slate theory, and it’s often attributed to seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke. It suggests that there is no inherent human nature – that we’re born with a clean slate, so to speak, and everything that makes us who we are gets picked up along the way.
This theory emphasizes the role of social influences in forming the customs, thoughts and behaviors we exhibit. So, any behavioral patterns that groups of people share, whether they’re of a particular race, ethnic group or gender, are all gained through experience. This means that if an individual grew up with another set of parents and a different education routine, and was exposed to different media, they would turn out to be a completely different person.
Another popular belief is known as the Noble Savage theory, which is often attributed to the eighteenth-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He believed that humans are inherently selfless and peaceful, but this natural state gets corrupted by civilized societies that promote greed and lead to violence.
The third concept is known as the Ghost in the Machine theory, which dates back to the seventeenth-century and the philosopher René Descartes. He believed that humans are composed of two separate systems, one that relates to the physical body and one that relates to the mind. People who adhered to this belief thought that the mind was complex in ways that simple mechanical terms couldn’t explain.
The Blank Slate, the Noble Savage, and the Ghost in the Machine are also known as empiricism, romanticism and dualism. But as we’ll see in the next blink, there’s another theory that can explain how the mind works.
The Blank Slate (2002) is about the huge role that evolution and genetics play in making us who we are. Steven Pinker makes a strong case against the belief that everyone is born a blank slate and influenced only by their upbringing, arguing instead that biology is a far more important factor in shaping our behaviors and personalities.
The idea that minds are shaped by culture served as a bulwark against racism and was the theory one ought to prefer on moral grounds.
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Blink 3 von 12 - Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit
von Yuval Noah Harari
