Pinker added a material incentive to the moral imperative. вЂњIt matters to the degree that the quality of every relationship, in order to build deep and satisfying relationships, hinges on mutual respect.вЂќ вЂњOf course it matters how one treats their children,вЂќ he said. He went on to say that вЂњvirtually everything-save factors such as religion or language-have a degree of inheritability greater than zero but less than 100.вЂќ Pinker addressed his criticsвЂ™ objections that a theory rooted in biology suggests that if there were no long-term consequences, then parental treatment of children is inconsequential. Pinker said evidence from the study of adoptive children and identical twins is particularly important in that identical twins reared apart are often very similar and вЂњadoptive children reared in the same environment are not at all similar.вЂќ One of PinkerвЂ™s most controversial assertions last night was that family environment has no significant effect on variations in character or personality, and that вЂњvirtually all the differences in parenting within a family can be explained as reactions to the genetic differences that the children were born with.вЂќ He said that politics and social theory need to be recast in a way that takes into account evidence that humans are in large part products of our unchangeable genetic makeup. Pinker emphasized that while critics have argued that attributing humanity to genetics alone results in a determinism that diminishes peoplesвЂ™ sense of responsibility, the implications of his theory donвЂ™t automatically lead to pessimistic assumptions.

Pinker attempts to refute this modern denial of human nature. Pinker synthesizes research in language, cognitive science and evolutionary psychology to produce a theory of human nature that repudiates long-standing doctrines such as the вЂњblank slate,вЂќ вЂњthe noble savageвЂќ and вЂњthe ghost in the machine.вЂќДuring the hour-and-a-half discussion, Pinker explained how these ideas, which he analyzes in his book, have led people to see вЂњhuman nature as dangerous.вЂќ Currently at number 10 on the New York Times Best-seller list, the book explores the notion of human nature and its moral and political implications.

PinkerвЂ™s talk focused on the material in his new book The Blank Slate. He said the role of nurture is often overestimated. Speaking at the Askwith Forum at the Graduate School of Education, Pinker denied the possibility of poet Philip LarkinвЂ™s well-known adage that your parents вЂњf- you up, your mum and dad / They may not mean to but they doвЂќ-a passage he quoted, to the delight of the crowd.

Renowned MIT linguist Steven Pinker engaged an audience of 400 in the classic nature versus nurture debate last night-saying heredity plays a more dominant role than many behaviorists of the last century have asserted.

Mit linguist