Simplistic headline belies more provocative content:

Causes of violence traced to human nature: “Artistic cruelty is hardly a thing of the past,’ writes Steven Pinker, Harvard psychologist and author of The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.

In explaining human thought and behavior, Pinker, whose courses include ‘The Human Mind,’ ‘Cognitive and Behavioral Genetics’ and ‘Evolutionary Psychology,’ argues that to refuse to acknowledge our evolutionary human nature distorts both the science and scholarship of today. Contrary to the title of his recent book, Pinker believes and argues with clarity, human beings are not born with a blank slate on which parents, environment, culture and society write. [This does not contradict the title, IMHO. The title makes it clear that Pinker thinks the ‘blank slate’ concept is misguided. — FmH]

Although the book covers a variety of topics including nature versus nurture, it is the chapter on violence I turned to upon learning of the recent revelations of human abuse once more against humans.”