Darwinian Storytelling

Darwinian Storytelling (New York Review of Books: 27-Feb-03)
What do Stalin, modern architecture, radical feminism, and most parenting experts have in common? They are all products of the false belief that we are born with empty minds, a tabula rasa. Or so says Steven Pinker in his new book, The Blank Slate. If the aim of science is to explain apparently unrelated phenomena via a single elegant theory, Pinker is obviously onto something big. Any theory that can explain the origins of the Five Year Plan and Le Corbusier must be reckoned with.
A generally unfavourable review of Pinker's latest book (which, I must admit, is probably why I'm publishing a link to it).