The blank slate: the modern denial of human nature

Part I. The blank slate, the noble savage, and the ghost in the machine

Official theory

Silly putty

Last wall to fall

Culture vultures

Slate's last stand

Part II. Fear and loathing

Political scientists

Holy trinity

Part III. Human nature with a human face

Fear of inequality

Fear of imperfectibility

Fear of determinism

Fear of nihilism

Part IV. Know thyself

In touch with reality

Out of our depths

Many roots of our suffering

Sanctimonious animal

Part V. Hot buttons

Politics

Violence

Gender

Children

Arts

Part VI. Voice of the species

Appendix: Donald E. Brown's list of human universals.