Trivers, pursuing his theory of the emotions to its logical conclusion, notes that in a world of walking lie detectors the best… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“Today we recognize that the emotion of disgust evolved as an unconscious defense against biological contamination.” — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
The elegant study... is consistent with the themes of modern cognitive neuroscience . Every aspect of thought and emotion is rooted in… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
You can't hear a word and just hear it as raw sound; it always evokes an associated meaning and emotion in the… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
The last 100 years of research into the human brain...sees the brain as an organ that works by physical principles just like… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
As every student in Philosophy 101 learns, nothing can force me to believe that anyone except me is conscious. This power to… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
What is true for the emotions may also be true for the intellect. Some of our perplexities may come from a mismatch… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
We instinctively fear snakes, but we appear not to be afraid of fast cars, which are a real danger now. This suggests… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
The problem with the emotions is not that they are untamed forces or vestiges of our animal past; it is that they… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Forcing modern speakers of English to not - whoops, not to split an infinitive because it isn't done in Latin makes about as much… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Consistent style prevents presentation from getting in the way of content. — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
The supposedly immaterial soul, we now know, can be bisected with a knife, altered by chemicals, started or stopped by electricity, and extinguished by… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
I've never argued that humans are massively hot-wired. What I was trying to point out was that you can't understand how we learn unless… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
As many political writers have pointed out, commitment to political equality is not an empirical claim that people are clones. — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Since violence is largely a male pastime, cultures that empower women tend to move away from the glorification of violence and are less likely… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power to shock.… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Morality is not just any old topic in psychology but close to our conception of the meaning of life. Moral goodness is what gives… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“The biblical story of the binding of Isaac shows that human sacrifice was far from unthinkable in the 1st millennium BCE. The Israelites boasted… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Part of the bargain of being alive is that one takes a chance at dying a premature or painful death, be it from violence,… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
In fact, without a specification of a creature's goals, the very idea of intelligence is meaningless. A toadstool could be given a genius award… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“The obvious cure for the tragic shortcomings of human intuition in a high-tech world is education. And this offers priorities for educational policy: to… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
