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Hello, on In Our Time this week we will be discussing nothing less than human nature.

Some argue that we're born as blank slates and our natures are defined by upbringing,

experience, culture and the ideas of our time. Others believe that some of the essential

figurations of human nature are innate and predestined, regardless of time and place.

And there are others who believe that human nature's uniqueness is debatable.

Is there really such a thing as human nature and if there is can it be changed?

Does the truth about human nature mean we should stop striving for progress or

should it give us course for optimism and how important

is the human race in the wider scheme of things.

Joining me to discuss these questions are Stephen Pinker, professor of psychology and director

of the Center of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology, and author most recently of the Blank Slate. Janet Radcliffe Richards,

philosopher, Reverin Bioethics at University College London

and author of Human Nature at Darwin and John Gray Professor of European Thought

at the London School of Economics and author most recently of Straw Dogs.

Let's start at the very beginning Stephen Pinker. What do you

understand by the term human nature? It's the set of emotions and learning

abilities and ways of conceptualizing the world that are common to all humans

and that allow us to learn and make culture.

So all of us have similar natures, whatever sort of person we are, where we're born,

...