The Blank Slate - Essay Example

[Manager] Philosophy 26 May The Blank Slate By: Steven Pinker I. Introduction The most important chapter in this book is Part IV “Know Thyself”, Chapter 12 In Touch With Reality and Chapter 13 Out of Our Depths. One of the highlights discussed in these two chapters is about discrimination. According to Steven Pinker, “Mental images are not really images at all, but instead consist of complicated opinions, positions, doubts, and passionately held convictions, rooted in experience and amendable by argument, by more experience, or by coercion. Our mental images of black men, white judges, the press, and so on do not take the form of pictures of the kind that you can hang up (or “deconstruct”) on a museum wall.... Hitler did not hate Jews because there were pictures of swarthy Semites with big noses imprinted on his cerebellum; racism does not exist in America because the picture of O. J. Simpson on the cover of Time is too dark. The view that visual cliches shape beliefs is both too pessimistic, in that it supposes that people are helplessly imprisoned by received stereotypes, and too optimistic, in that it supposes that if you could change the images you could change the beliefs”(Pinker 217). By expounding these statements written by the author, it is noticeable that he particularly emphasized that discrimination has already been part of our culture and human nature. At present time, our culture is primarily influenced by empiricism or known as the “blank slate”. In philosophy, empiricism is “the view that concepts originate in experience, that all concepts are about or applicable to things which are experienced, or that all rationally accepted beliefs or propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience. The word was originated from the Greek word empeiria or experience” (Britannica.com). Whatever is felt by the senses shall be the basis of how we formulate our thoughts as we base everything from experience. II. Text and Translation One of the fears of human nature is the theory that if each one of us is inherently different from one another, then discrimination is defensible. However, Pinker negates this erroneous presumption. According to him, although people are inherently different from each other, we should maintain equality in all aspects, race, color, gender, education and culture. Pinker supported this view by saying that it is only man himself who is building a wall or division among others. The human desire within him creates the conflict because in his mind, he knows what is right from wrong. We think, feel and learn from our daily experiences as we continue to explore life. This conclusion may be drawn in correlation from this statement, “Our understanding of life has only been enriched by the discovery that living flesh is composed of molecular clockwork rather than quivering protoplasm, or that birds soar by exploiting the laws of physics rather than defying them. In the same way, our understanding of ourselves and our cultures can only be enriched by the discovery that our minds are composed of intricate neural circuits for thinking, feeling, and learning rather than blank slates, amorphous blobs, or inscrutable ghosts”(Pinker 72). Man only draws out a concept based on the images he sees. This conventional formulation of conclusion based only on the physical attributes to embody the holistic essence of a person is also known as stereotyping. We should not look only at the physical aspect of things or persons that are presented before us. What we may see outside may be false or misleading. We should dig deeper and use our minds to decipher a concept as we look beyond what is only seen on the outside, but also on the inside. To support this impression, Pinker stated that “Also, people's ability to set aside stereotypes when judging an individual is accomplished by their conscious, deliberate reasoning. When people are distracted or put under pressure to respond quickly, they are more likely to judge that a member of an ethnic group has all the stereotyped traits of the group . The partial accuracy of many stereotypes does not, of course, mean that racism, sexism, and ethnic prejudice are acceptable. Quite apart from the democratic principle that in the public sphere people should be treated as individuals, there are good reasons to be concerned about stereotypes. Stereotypes based on hostile depictions rather than on firsthand experience are bound to be inaccurate. And some stereotypes are accurate only because of self-fulfilling prophecies” (Pinker 205 206). III. Form and Structure In this passage, “The view that visual cliches shape beliefs is both too pessimistic, in that it supposes that people are helplessly imprisoned by received stereotypes, and too optimistic, in that it supposes that if you could change the images you could change the beliefs”(Pinker 217), it is evident that Pinker opposes discrimination. To him, there is no logical explanation why one social class should be singled out as superior or inferior over the other class. He clearly abhors any form of prejudice, may it be based on race, color or gender issues. It is clear that there is coherence between the statements of the author and the images he used in his book. He used tables and checkers to highlight visual illusions. He wants us to get in touch with reality and not be fooled merely by what we see by optical vision. He further asserted that: “The idea that we just see things as they are is called naive realism, and it was refuted by skeptical philosophers thousands of years ago with the help of a simple phenomenon: visual illusions. Our visual systems can play tricks on us, and that is enough to prove they are gadgets, not pipelines to the truth. Here are two of my favorites. In Roger Shepard's “Turning the Tables” (right), the two parallelograms are identical in size and shape. In Edward Adelson's “Checker Shadow Illusion” (below) the light square in the middle of the shadow (B) is the same shade of gray as the dark squares outside the shadow (A)”(Pinker 200). Although human nature dictates that not everyone is the same and we possess diverse cultures. It is a fact that we are born dissimilar from each other. We did not come from the same race, we differ in color and sex, nor do we believe in the same religion. Clearly, diversity of cultures is unmistakable throughout society. However, Pinker views this as nothing but an image that we form in our minds. According to him, although man may be different from our neighbor, we should learn to practice equality and fairness in our culture. IV. Application As part of one nation, I firmly believe that we should all work hand in hand and work for one common goal that is to eliminate all forms of prejudices and discrimination. In T.S. Eliot’s entitled “Notes Towards the Definition of Culture. Eliot stated that “a national culture, if it is to flourish, should be a constellation of cultures, the constituents of which, benefitting each other, benefit the whole” (Eliot 58). Verily, Eliot talks about diversities. Not all communities came from the same racial, ethnic, cultural or social group. It is highly probable that each of them practice their own way of living, say for example, the history, language, customs and traditions, national costume, cuisine, beliefs and principles in life are entirely exclusive. It is of common knowledge that there are dissimilar social classes and religious sects present throughout the entire world. This will all redound to one conclusion, each individual belongs to his own kinship. Every human being has his own culture and tradition. If we trace back our roots, we will discover that we did not come from the same family tree. Each one is distinct from the other. We all do not think and feel alike. However, we also have to learn to respect each other and thresh-out our disparities. Each one of us must work towards creating symbiotic relationships in order to benefit from each other. We all live in one world and we must work hand in hand as a nation to achieve equality and fairness and eliminate all forms of discrimination and prejudice. “Culture is essentially shared and shareable” (Bachika xxiii). “Culture may even be described simply as that which makes life worth living” (Eliot 58). V. Conclusion To finally resolve this crisis, we must be able to identify that factors that can lead towards social, cultural, racial or gender discrimination. The modernization and industrialization of the Western civilization and economies has drawn a major set-back to towards the sustenance of equality among nations. Discrimination hinders society to progress because not everyone is given equal opportunities. Most of us are prejudged based on race, color or gender which hampers us to standout because society has already limited our capabilities based on mistaken perceptions. According to Masoud Kamali, “discrimination does not only exist in the form of observable social actions, but also as subtle, hidden, and sometimes unintentional actions that indirectly harm some groups of people in a society. Discriminatory actions can be often based on established routines, norms, rules and laws that are normally not contested in a society” (Kamali 5). The social ills in our culture like discrimination and prejudice can be completely eradicated if each one of us shall observe individual human rights, as we are all entitled to fundamental freedoms based on the law. We should practice to treat all persons fairly, without building any biases and favoritism based on racial, ethnic, social or gender grounds. According to Pinker, “This whole enterprise is based on an unstated theory of human concept formation: that conceptual categories bear no systematic relation to things in the world but are socially constructed (and can therefore be reconstructed). Is it a correct theory? In some cases it has a grain of truth. As we saw in Chapter 4, some categories really are social constructions: they exist only because people tacitly agree to act as if they exist. Examples include money, tenure, citizenship, decorations for bravery, and the presidency of the United States. But that does not mean that all conceptual categories are socially constructed. Concept formation has been studied for decades by cognitive psychologists, and they conclude that most concepts pick out categories of objects in the world which had some kind of reality before we ever stopped to think about them” (Pinker 202-203). With this in mind, we should remain optimistic that we can bring traditional culture of equality and fairness back to salvation if we start within ourselves. We should learn to see what is beyond the physical appearance before we formulate a conclusion. Just like how we receive gifts or presents. We sometimes just look at how the gift is wrapped by the expensive wrappers and beautiful ribbons adorned in it, we already conclude that what is inside will give us pleasure and joy. However, this perception is misleading and deceptive as we still do not know what is actually inside the box that needs to be opened. This is how we should treat people around us. We do not look at the outer cover or appearance but see beyond it and look at the inside and discover what satisfies our visual senses. Pinker further adds, “And people have no trouble overriding a stereotype when they have good information about an individual. Contrary to a common accusation, teachers’ impressions of their individual pupils are not contaminated by their stereotypes of race, gender, or socioeconomic status. The teachers’ impressions accurately reflect the pupil's performance as measured by objective tests. Now for the important exceptions. Stereotypes can be downright inaccurate when a person has few or no firsthand encounters with the stereotyped group, or belongs to a group that is overtly hostile to the one being judged” (Pinker 204-205). Further, one author suggested that human nature and traditional culture can still be revived. Bachika explains that there is a strong tie between religion and culture. Religion plays a major participation in the globalization and cultural awareness. He suggests that the rehabilitation of religion, as the fundamental category of human culture must be fully realized in order to preserve traditional culture. “To validate this view, Bachika proposes a re-conceptualization of culture as consisting of symbols and values. He concludes that the significance of religion in society would be greatly enhanced if a majority of modern men and women saw religion as spiritual culture and faith in spiritual values”(Bachika xxviii). This ensures that if the foundation of traditional culture is stable, we will be able to eliminate discrimination in society. Works Cited: Bachika, Reimon. Traditional Culture and Religion in a New Era. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2002. Print Eliot, Thomas S. Notes Towards the Definition of Culture. Faber and Faber, 1962. Print. “empiricism.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica 2011. Web. 15 March 2011.  Kamali, Masoud. Racial Discrimination: Institutional Patterns and Politics. Madison Ave, NY, New York: Taylor and Francis Group. 2009. Print. Pinker, Steven. The Blank Slate. Viking, New York: Penguin Group, 2002, Print. Read More