|Standard Social Science metaphor for |
the human mind as a 'blank slate' at birth
According to the 'Standard Social Science Model', the human mind at birth is a 'blank slate', or in latin, tabula rasa. This means that our understanding of the world, and the manner in which we think and behave, are acquired only through exposure to and learning from our environment, including especially the social environment. Variations in human behaviours then are considered to be entirely a consequence of variable environments and variation in the opportunity to learn from different environments. In other words, we and we alone are the arbiters of our own minds; they are only what our experiences and opportunities enable them to be, and are not to any significant degree a product of genetic inheritance influenced by Darwinian selection in the ancestral past.
|Genetic Determinism metaphor for the |
human mind as a blueprint or computer program
Importantly, this Darwinian view of the mind should not be confused with 'genetic determinism', where the mind is likened to a blueprint or a computer algorithm, with features solely determined by ‘coding’ from genes. Instead, the human mind is like a jukebox (Tooby and Cosmides 1992), where a number of 'tracks' (genetic instructions) are already stored in the 'machine', but particular environments determine which 'buttons' get pressed to play particular tracks. The human mind can also been likened to a colouring book (Kenrick et al. 2010), where the inner structure of pre-drawn lines (genetic instructions) interact with environmental inputs (different artists with differently coloured crayons) to determine the final phenotype of the behaviour (picture).
In my new book (Aarssen 2015), coming out later this year, I propose that the 'blank slate' model of the mind, itself, may be a cultural (memetic) product of evolution by natural selection. Being a staunch defender of the 'blank slate' may just be a modern manifestation of a deeply ingrained disposition (inherited from the ancestral past) to be a staunch defender of the 'self' — a disposition that was adaptive to ancestors because it helped to dispel the worry that one might be stuck with an intrinsically inferior 'self'. The Evolutionary Science Model of the mind poses a threat, therefore, because it espouses that an 'inferior self' is likely to be informed, at least partially, by less-than-superior genes. Tenacious belief in the 'blank slate' then (like belief in religion) provides a buffer from the fear of having limited potential for memetic legacy (with the latter conjured by self-impermanence anxiety — explored in an earlier post). It also facilitates the appealing
it is a cultural product of it.
it is a cultural product of it.
Aarssen L (2015) What Are We? Exploring the Evolutionary Roots of Our Future. Queen's University, Kingston.
Dobzhansky T (1963) Anthropology and the natural sciences: The problem of human evolution. Current Anthropology 4: 138+146-148.
Kenrick DT, Nieuweboer S, Buunk AB (2010) Universal mechanisms and cultural diversity: replacing the blank slate with a coloring book. In Schaller M, Norenzayan A, Heine SJ, Yamagishi T, Kameda T (Eds.), Evolution, Culture and the Human Mind. Psychology Press, New York.
Tooby J, Cosmides L (1992) The psychological foundations of culture. In Barkow J, Cosmides L, Tooby J (Eds.), The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, pp. 19–136. Oxford University Press, New York.
Wilson EO (2012) The Social Conquest of Earth. Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York.