The blank slate‚ written by Steven Pinker; an experimental psychologist and cognitive scientist‚ examines the ideas behind the ongoing debate regarding human nature and the theories of nature and nurture. The book begins with and in depth outline of the three doctrines of the nurture debate‚ the first being “The blank slate” which asserts that individuals are “born void of all characters without any ideas” as stated by John Locke (1632-1704) and that behavior is learnt from society and those around
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a punch? Does it surprise you? Well‚ that is how Steven Pinker‚ a professor of psychology at Harvard‚ decided to start his article “What the F***” in The New Republic. It seems inappropriate that a Harvard professor would start any piece of writing in this way; however‚ as the piece goes on‚ his stance on cursing loses its initially crude air and becomes a more credible‚ scientific argument. By introducing cursing in a new scholarly light‚ Pinker is able to morph the reader’s initial repulsion to
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REBUTTAL TO STEVEN PINKER’S PRESENTATION IN “THE GENDER AND SCIENCE DEBATE BETWEEN PINKER AND SPELKE” Steven Pinker’s presentation on the gender and science debate brings into foray the controversial and the somewhat touchy topic of under representation of women in the field of physical sciences‚ mathematics and engineering concentrating on the elite universities like Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. In a niftily presented staging of his points‚ Pinker keeps the
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Ethical Issues in The 2002 Steven Spielberg Movie Minority Report Technology is progressing every day. We have come so far in the past ten years. Imagine life in 2054‚ and what life will be like. That is what Philip K. Dick did in 1956 when he wrote the short story Minority Report‚ which was later produced as a movie. In the movie Minority Report‚ a team of officers led by John Anderson (Tom Cruise)‚ work together in the precime division. They collect information given by precogs to find
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Based on Philip Dick’s 1956 science-fiction novel‚ Minority Report is a film directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 2002. Set in the apparent utopian society of 2054 in Washington DC‚ murder has been virtually eliminated as a result of a specialised division of law enforcement known as “pre-crime”. Three children‚ called pre-cogs‚ with the ability to foresee murders allow them to arrest criminals before any harm is done. John Anderton heads up this department‚ until he is convicted of the future
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Yuanruo Xu Language Development March 15th‚ 2015 Culture and Language Whether language acquisition is a human instinct or not has been discussed by linguists for a long time. As human beings are able to respond and learn all kinds of language patterns that expose to them‚ and children can come up with their own language‚ it is obvious to say that language is a human instinct. However‚ children are not able to learn and master a language without being exposed to a normal language-speaking environment
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This article begins with an example of a woman who suffered brain trauma after a car crash and now lives in a vegetative state (she is unable to respond to visual‚ physical‚ or auditory stimuli). Belgian and British scientists conducted an experiment on her through the use of an MRI that showed blood flow to parts of the brain that still remained active. After speaking to her and asking her to imagine various situations‚ a discovery was made showing that different regions of the brain associated
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Wallace Stevens(October 2‚ 1879 – August 2‚ 1955) Career and Life * Stevens was born in Reading‚ Pennsylvania on October 2‚ 1879‚ and died at the age of seventy-six in Hartford‚ Connecticut on August 2‚ 1955.He attended Harvard as a special student from 1897 to 1900 but did not graduate; he graduated from New York law school in 1903 and was admitted to the New York bar in 1904. * The same year he met Elsie Kachel‚ a young woman from Reading‚ whom he married in 1909. They had one daughter
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Steven Hoskins was a 39 year old man with learning disabilities who was subjected to harrowing abuse ending in his death in St Austell‚ Cornwall on 6th July 2006. He had a troubled history‚ had experienced a significant amount of bullying and discrimination in his life and needed support to live in the community. Hoskins was placed in a bed-sit by Adult Social Care in April 2005 and he was allocated 2 hours of help each week‚ but he chose to cancel the service in August 2005 and by September 2005
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What is Stevens Johnson Syndrome? Stevens-Johnson Syndrome is a potentially deadly skin disease that usually results from a drug reaction. Another form of the disease is called Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis‚ and again this usually results from a drug-related reaction. Both forms of the disease can be deadly as well as very painful and distressing. In most cases‚ these disorders are caused by a reaction to a drug‚ and one drug that has come under fire lately is the cox-2 inhibitor Bextra‚ which is already
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