• In total there are 5 users online :: 0 registered, 0 hidden and 5 guests (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)
    Most users ever online was 789 on Tue Mar 19, 2024 5:08 am

Political Impact

#9: July - Aug. 2003 (Non-Fiction)
seanf 2003

Political Impact

Unread post

In his chapter on politics, Pinker basically argues that the traditional left is shown by the new theories of human nature to be, well, wrong. While I find some of his arguments quite convincing - "Nice theory, wrong species," (thank you Mr. Wilson) is a conclusion about socialism I came to seperately a couple of years ago - I have a problem. I don't like the right wing. I tend to find the views of right wingers more bigoted, narrow minded, short sighted, etc, and although free market capitalism when expressed by it's advocates does seem a 'nice theory,' the reality is somewhat different - probably due to human nature. Therefore, without knowing that many of the details, I am declaring myself a darwinian leftist. I'll get round to getting that book he mentions sometime. Any thoughts?
Jeremy1952
Kindle Fanatic
Posts: 545
Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2002 2:19 pm
21
Location: Saint Louis

Re: Political Impact

Unread post

Culture is Lamarkian, not Darwinian. And there is nothing wrong with making a moral judgement that the brutality of Capitalism should be ameliorated by compassion, legislated compassion if necessary. What is mistaken is to say we should treat people a certain way because human nature is a certain way; this is an ethical fallacy in any case, but it is worse when the presumption about human nature is dead wrong. Science is neither a philosophy nor a belief system. It is a combination of mental operations that has become increasingly the habit of educated peoples, a culture of illuminations hit upon by a fortunate turn of history that yielded the most effective way of learning about the real world ever conceived. E.O.Wilson
Post Reply

Return to “The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature - by Stephen Pinker”