Why Do We Deny The Existence of Human Nature? (S1EP18)

Summary

In this transcript, the speaker discusses the controversial nature of music as a potential evolutionary adaptation, contrasting it with other behaviors like aggression that are more likely to be adaptations. The speaker also addresses the fear of a non-blank slate, arguing against the belief that humans are born without inherent traits. They refute the idea that equality depends on sameness and emphasize the importance of separating moral beliefs from scientific facts, advocating for a nuanced understanding of human nature and its potential for improvement.

Takeaways

• 🎵 Music is often considered to be an adaptation due to its positive effects on humans, but the evidence supporting this is considered flimsy.
• 🧬 People tend to desire that important aspects of life, like music, are biological adaptations, but there are also negative traits that are likely adaptations which people deny.
• 📚 The concept of the 'blank slate' (tabula rasa) is rejected by the author, who argues that the mind has evolutionary structuring.
• 🤔 Four fears drive the belief in the blank slate: fear of inequality, fear of imperfectability, fear of determinism, and fear of nihilism.
• 🏳️‍🌈 The fear of inequality suggests that a blank slate implies sameness, but the author argues that equality does not require sameness and that diversity can coexist with fairness.
• 🚀 The fear of imperfectability implies that if humans are blank slates, society can be perfected, but the author believes that human complexity allows for improvement despite inherent traits.
• 🔒 The fear of determinism raises concerns about personal responsibility if behaviors are genetically or evolutionarily determined.
• 🌀 The fear of nihilism suggests that without an immortal soul, life loses meaning, but the author argues that meaning can be derived from human relationships and rationality.
• 🧠 The author emphasizes that our brains are complex physical systems, and even if we are our brains, we can still hold each other responsible for actions.
• 🌐 Morality and meaning do not rely on miracles or souls; they can be derived from our capacity for reason and our desire to flourish.

Q & A

What is the main controversy surrounding music according to the transcript?

The main controversy is that people want music to be an adaptation, but the evidence supporting it as a biological adaptation is considered flimsy by the speaker.

Why do people want music to be a biological adaptation?

People want music to be an adaptation because it is uplifting, brings people together, and gives pleasure, leading them to believe it should serve a purpose in human nature.

What is the concept of 'blank slate' or 'tabula rasa' mentioned in the script?

The 'blank slate' or 'tabula rasa' refers to the hypothesis that the mind is without any evolutionary structuring, implying that there is no innate human nature.

What are the four fears that people have of a non-blank slate according to the transcript?

The four fears are: the fear of inequality, the fear of imperfectability, the fear of determinism, and the vague fear of nihilism.

How does the fear of inequality relate to the concept of a blank slate?

The fear of inequality relates to the blank slate concept because it suggests that if humans are born with certain traits, it might lead to unequal abilities or potentials, contradicting the idea of inherent equality.

What does the fear of imperfectability suggest about human nature?

The fear of imperfectability suggests that if humans are not blank slates, then it might be impossible to improve society by changing human behavior, as it is seen as innate.

How does the fear of determinism impact the belief in personal responsibility?

The fear of determinism implies that if behavior is determined by genes or evolution, people might not be held responsible for their choices, leading to an abdication of personal responsibility.

What is the fear of nihilism as described in the transcript?

The fear of nihilism is the worry that without an immortal soul or afterlife, life loses meaning and purpose, and people won't have anything to live for.

Why does the speaker believe that the fear of nihilism is unfounded?

The speaker believes the fear of nihilism is unfounded because life on Earth can still be valued as a finite precious gift, and morality and meaning can be derived from human nature and reason, without the need for miracles or souls.

How does the speaker argue that political equality is different from sameness?

The speaker argues that political equality is about treating individuals according to their merits without prejudice, not about everyone being identical or indistinguishable.

What is the speaker's stance on the possibility of improving human nature?

The speaker believes improvement is possible because human nature is complex, and some aspects can be set against others to work around flaws, similar to how we solve other problems like hunger and disease.

Outlines

00:00

🎵 Music and Human Nature

The speaker discusses the controversial nature of music and its potential as a biological adaptation. They argue against the desire for music to be an adaptation, suggesting that people often confuse the concept of adaptation with the idea that it must be beneficial or desirable. The speaker also touches on other traits, such as aggression, that may be adaptations but are less desirable. They criticize the blending of moral expectations with scientific hypotheses and reference their book 'The Blank Slate', which challenges the idea that the mind is a blank slate without any evolutionary structure. The speaker identifies four fears that they believe contribute to the resistance against accepting a non-blank slate view of human nature: fear of inequality, fear of imperfectability, fear of determinism, and fear of nihilism.

05:02

🧠 Fears of a Non-Blank Slate

This paragraph delves into the fears that arise from the idea of human nature not being a blank slate. The speaker addresses the fear of imperfectability, suggesting that if humans were truly blank slates, then any undesirable traits could be changed with the right cultural influences. However, the speaker argues that this is not the case, as human nature is complex and some traits can be mitigated by other aspects of our nature. They also discuss the fear of determinism, where if behavior is seen as genetically or evolutionarily programmed, it might be argued that individuals cannot be held responsible for their actions. The speaker refutes this by stating that responsibility can be maintained through social expectations and consequences. Lastly, they mention the fear of nihilism, the idea that without an immortal soul, life would lack meaning, which the speaker also disputes.

10:05

🌟 The Value of Life and Morality

In the final paragraph, the speaker refutes the notion that life's meaning and purpose are dependent on an immortal soul or an afterlife. They argue that the belief in an afterlife can devalue earthly life and that valuing life as a finite gift is more uplifting. The speaker emphasizes that there are many things to live for, such as relationships, nature, and culture, and that these can provide satisfaction and pleasure. They also assert that morality and meaning can exist without the need for miracles or souls, as human flourishing and reason provide a foundation for these concepts, even if we are products of evolution.

Keywords

💡Adaptation

Adaptation in the biological sense refers to a heritable physical or behavioral characteristic that increases an organism's chances of survival and reproduction. In the context of the video, the speaker argues that people often mistakenly believe that music is an adaptation because it brings joy and unity, despite the lack of strong evidence. The speaker emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between biological adaptations and culturally valued traits.

💡Blank Slate

The term 'blank slate' or 'tabula rasa' is used to describe the idea that the human mind is born without any innate structure or predispositions, and is entirely shaped by experience. The speaker rejects this hypothesis, arguing that the mind does have an evolutionary structure. This concept is central to the speaker's argument against the denial of human nature.

💡Controversy

Controversy is a theme in the video, as the speaker discusses the heated debates surrounding theories of human nature. The speaker suggests that people become defensive when their moral expectations are challenged by scientific hypotheses, which is why discussions about human nature, such as differences between sexes or intelligence, can be so contentious.

💡Evolutionary History

Evolutionary history refers to the process by which species change over time through genetic inheritance, mutation, and natural selection. The speaker uses this term to discuss how certain traits, like male aggression, likely have an evolutionary basis but are often denied as adaptations due to societal discomfort.

💡Moral Expectations

Moral expectations are the speaker's term for the societal and personal values that people bring to their interpretation of scientific theories. The speaker criticizes this tendency, arguing that it can distort both scientific understanding and moral beliefs. An example from the script is the desire for music to be an adaptation because it is seen as a positive, uplifting force.

💡Fear of Inequality

The fear of inequality is one of the four fears the speaker identifies that lead people to adopt the blank slate theory. This fear suggests that acknowledging innate differences could undermine the ideal of equality. The speaker counters by distinguishing between equality (fair treatment) and sameness (being identical), arguing that recognizing differences does not negate the moral stance of equality.

💡Fear of Imperfectability

Fear of imperfectability refers to the concern that if humans are not blank slates, then negative traits are immutable and society cannot be improved. The speaker refutes this fear by arguing that human complexity allows for the possibility of improvement, even if we are not entirely malleable.

💡Fear of Determinism

Fear of determinism is the worry that if behavior is genetically or evolutionarily determined, individuals cannot be held responsible for their actions. The speaker addresses this by explaining that even if our brains are complex systems, social expectations and consequences can influence behavior and maintain a sense of responsibility.

💡Fear of Nihilism

Fear of nihilism is the anxiety that without an immortal soul or afterlife, life loses meaning and purpose. The speaker dismisses this fear, suggesting that life's value comes from its finite nature and that morality and meaning can exist without supernatural beliefs.

💡Human Nature

Human nature encompasses the innate qualities that are considered to be unique to the human species. The speaker argues against the blank slate theory by asserting that human nature does have an evolutionary structure and that acknowledging this does not undermine moral or social values.

💡Political Correctness

Political correctness in the video refers to the avoidance of language or actions that could be seen as offensive or biased. The speaker suggests that the blank slate theory became politically correct due to societal fears, despite the lack of evidence supporting it.

Highlights

Controversy surrounding music as an evolutionary adaptation.

People's desire for music to be an adaptation despite flimsy evidence.

Confusion between biological adaptation and cultural value.

The blank slate theory and its rejection of innate human nature.

Four fears that lead to the belief in a blank slate.

The fear of inequality and the misunderstanding of political equality.

The fear of imperfectability and the potential for societal improvement.

The fear of determinism and the impact on moral responsibility.

The fear of nihilism and the search for meaning in a material world.

The importance of separating moral commitments from scientific beliefs.

The potential for human nature to be improved through cultural and social institutions.

The argument against the idea that human behavior is solely a product of upbringing.

The complexity of human nature and the capacity for self-control and empathy.

The role of human nature in developing moral norms and social systems.

The ability to hold people responsible despite the absence of a 'miracle' in decision-making.

The value of life on Earth and the importance of living ethically without the need for an afterlife.

The philosophical stance that morality and meaning can exist without supernatural beliefs.

Transcripts

foreign

[Music]

a lot of what I've written about is

controversial probably everything that

I've written about is controversial one

reason or another but nothing so much as

ironically music for some reason people

desperately want music to be an

adaptation even though as far as I'm

concerned the evidence for any of those

theories is is uh pretty flimsy and I

think it's because people confuse the

notion of an adaptation in Darwin's

strict biological sense namely a

heritable feature of an organism that

led its ancestors to have more surviving

Offspring in the environment in which it

evolved adaptive in a sense of being

healthy valuable desirable worth

promoting people want the kinds of

things that they think are important in

life to be biological adaptations to be

part of human nature and because music

is uplifting and it brings people

together and it gives pleasure people

kind of wanted to be there for a reason

conversely there are other things that

probably do have a

evolutionary history but that are kind

of ugly that people often deny our

adaptations which I suspect are like

revenge like the greater aggressiveness

of males than females there's excellent

reason to believe that those really are

adaptations even though we'd rather not

have them people bring their moral

expectations into their evaluation of

scientific hypotheses which I think is a

mistake both for the science and for our

best moral beliefs the moral and

political emotional colorings of human

nature set the stage for perhaps my most

controversial book called the blank

slate the modern denial of human nature

the blank slate or tabula Raza referring

to the hypothesis that I reject namely

that the mind is a blank slate without

any evolutionary

structuring I tried to diagnose why so

many hypotheses about human nature about

differences between the Sexes about

intelligence and the way it's

distributed across people of motives

like anger and revenge and jealousy and

fear and disgust why they should be so

controversial why they should get people

exercised my best guess is that there

are four fears that people have of a

non-blank slate for Fears of human

nature that led to the blank slate

becoming a kind of politically correct

belief in the 20th century and each one

of these fears I believe is is unfounded

it's a non-sequitur and the uh the fears

are groundless one of them is what I

call the fear of inequality

the one of the great advantages of a

blank slate is that zero equals zero

equals zero for all blank slates we're

all the same that means that men can't

be better than women women can't be

better than men no one can be smarter or

more honest or braver or harder working

or more conscientious than anyone else

because those things we aren't born with

in the first place therefore the

ultimate equality would be sameness now

I think this is a mistake I think it's

uh first of all not true of people we're

not clones we're not blank slates we

really do have some differences but it's

a mistake to think that our political

ideal of equality depends on sameness

there's a difference between fairness

and sameness political equality is the

moral commitment that we treat people as

individuals according to their merits

and that we don't Prejudice them by some

average characteristics of their uh

their ethnic group or their sex or their

background in judging them as

individuals that's a moral stance it

should not be confused with the idea

that we are all blank slates or clones

in fact I think that if you have a

commitment to equality as I do the last

thing you want to do is say that it

depends on us all being identical

because as the evidence starts to

trickle in and eventually pour

that we're not all indistinguishable

that men and women aren't exactly the

same in every uh detail on average that

not every person is identical to

everyone else you don't want to say well

okay I guess bigotry was right after all

uh you want to say no bigotry and

Prejudice and sexism and racism are just

wrong regardless of what the facts turn

out to be they're wrong because they're

immoral you want to separate your moral

commitments from your vulnerable

falsifiable factual beliefs the second

fear is I call the fear of

imperfectability

if you believe that humans are blank

slates well then anything's possible if

we have the right kind of cultural

messages the right kind of parenting the

right kind of schools the right kind of

government programs that all of these

nasty traits of of annoying human beings

that we see all the time the jealousy

the selfishness the irrationalities the

uh overconfidence things that we don't

have to live with forever we can kind of

program them out because they were

programmed in to begin with

hate to interrupt wouldn't you prefer

uninterrupted Indulgence head to find

qualia.com to access the entire series

by The Genius Stephen Pinker completely

ad-free

if we're kind of born with them that

seems to lead to the rather depressing

prospect that we could never improve

society as they say you can't change

human nature therefore it's better if we

believe that humans are blank slates now

I think this is a mistake

first of all I think it's false I don't

think you can program anyone to be

anything and in fact if you do you uh

are inviting a totalitarian coercive

regime if you think that people are just

clay to be shaped by authorities but

also

um Improvement is possible because human

nature is so complex and some parts of

human nature can be set against others

yes I really do think we are saddled

with some rather unfortunate traits like

dominance like Revenge we have a

capacity for sadism we have a capacity

for callousness we can be impulsive

fortunately that's not all we have there

are also better angels of our nature we

also have a sense of empathy we have a

sense of self-control we have the

ability to develop moral Norms they're

just things that a decent person doesn't

do

we're smart we can figure out

workarounds for some of the flaws in

human nature just the way we solve other

problems facing us like hunger and

disease and we can come up with

institutions like a justice system and

the rule of law a school system that can

work around our flaws and use some parts

of human nature against the other

there's a third fear that leads to

people wanting us to be blank slates and

that's the the fear of determinism the

idea that if uh behavior is as they say

you know in the genes or programmed by

Evolution will never be able to hold

people responsible for their choices

people will always be able to get off a

hook by saying it wasn't me it was my

genes I can't help it I'm a male I can't

help it I'm a human and there'll be an

abdication of responsibility by the way

uh this is a kind of fear that could

also be leveled against the blank slate

Theory because if we're products of our

upbringing as BF Skinner said if our

behavior is the result of our history of

reinforcement and our current stimulus

situation and Free Will is a myth well

we can't hold people responsible in that

scenario either and in fact Skinner

didn't want to he wrote a bestseller

called Beyond freedom and dignity saying

we should throw out the notion of moral

responsibility because people are

products of their environments and as

with the fear that people might use

their genes or their evolution to get

them off the hook there's the

possibility that people could use their

uh their upbringing to get them off the

hook as in the famous comedy song G

officer krupke from West Side Story in

which the juvenile delinquents taught

the police officer by saying we're

depraved on account and we're deprived

so I think that's it's a mess it's a

poor way of thinking about

responsibility the way to think about

responsibility is that

even if down deep we really are our

brains we are complex physical systems I

don't think there is a miracle that

takes place in the brain every time we

make a decision I don't think there's a

soul or a ghost on the other hand our

brain is so complex that we respond to

the expectations of other people

including other people holding us

responsible if we know that we will if

you rob a liquor store you'll go to jail

if you cheat on your spouse other people

will look down on you well you factor

that into your decisions and you uh you

don't cheat you don't rob you don't

steal you don't kill that's a way in

which people can be held responsible are

held responsible even if uh there is no

miracle that goes on when we make

decisions

finally

there's a vague fear that I call the the

fear of nihilism that somehow meaning

and purpose depends on there being an

immortal soul that is perhaps rewarding

for its choices in an afterlife and if

it turns out that we're just our brains

and that when we're dead that that's the

end well uh people won't have anything

to live for

now I think this too is involves a kind

of intellectual laziness for one thing I

don't think there's anything

particularly uplifting about belief in

an afterlife because it devalues life on

Earth it uh says that the our years that

are alive are an infinitesimal fraction

of our existence why not uh blow

yourself up to achieve the rewards of

martyrdom in Paradise knowing that every

moment of life is a finite precious gift

is what makes us value our lives and the

lives of others and there's no shortage

of things to live for even if we are our

brains you can not only drive pleasure

and satisfaction from being human from

friends and family and nature and

culture but knowing that there's nothing

special about you you can recognize the

imperative that anything that you expect

for yourself you have to Grant to others

as uh the philosopher Spinoza said those

under the influence of Reason want

nothing for themselves that they don't

also want for all of humanity so there

is built into our

desire to flourish and our capacity for

reason are we have the grounds of

morality and meaning and we don't need

for there to be Miracles or Souls even

if we are products of evolution