The Blank Slate - Reception

Reception

Psychologist David Buss stated that "This may be the most important book so far published in the 21st century.".

Psychologist David P. Barash wrote that "Pinker’s thinking and writing are first-rate … maybe even better than that."

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins stated that "The Blank Slate is ... a stylish piece of work. I won't say it is better than The Language Instinct or How the Mind Works, but it is as good—which is very high praise indeed.".

Philosopher Daniel Dennett wrote that " wades resolutely into the comforting gloom surrounding these not quite forbidden topics and calmly, lucidly marshals the facts to ground his strikingly subversive Darwinian claims—subversive not of any of the things we properly hold dear but subversive of the phony protective layers of misinformation surrounding them."

Behaviorist Henry D. Schlinger wrote two more critical review of the book that emphasized the importance of learning.

Behaviorist Elliot A. Ludvig criticized Pinker's description of Behaviorism and insights into Behaviorist research.

Philosopher John Dupré argued that the book overstated the case for biological explanations and argued for a balanced approach.

Biologist H. Allen Orr argued that Pinker's work often lacks scientific rigor, and suggests that it is "soft science".

Anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen argued that most of Pinker's arguments were flawed since they employed a strawman fallacy argumentation style, and selectively picked supporting evidence as well as foils. He wrote that "perhaps the most damaging weakness in books of the generic Blank Slate kind is their intellectual dishonesty (evident in the misrepresentation of the views of others), combined with a faith in simple solutions to complex problems. The paucity of nuance in the book is astonishing."