When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Aggression, like every other part of human behavior we take for granted, is a challenging engineering problem! — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“In behaviorism, an infant's talents and abilities didn't matter because there was no such thing as a talent or an ability. Watson… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
All our behaviours are a result of neurophysiological activity in the brain. There is no reason to believe there is any magic… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Plants can't very well defend themselves by their behavior, so they resort to chemical warfare, and plants are saturated with toxins and… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Genetically influenced behavior is not necessarily good and not necessarily unchangeable. Explanations of bad behavior that appeal to genes do not absolve… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“As always, the challenge is to find an exogenous change that precedes the change in sensibilities and behavior so we can avoid… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“Everyone has a theory of human nature. Everyone has to anticipate the behavior of others, and that means we all need theories… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
The moral, then, is that familiar categories of behavior - marriage customs, food taboos, folk superstitions, and so on - certainly do… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
The actual organization of behavior goes on the level of the individual nerve cells and their connections, and we have a hundred… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“Institutionalized torture in Christendom was not just an unthinking habit; it had a moral rationale. If you really believe that failing to… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Of course, genes can't pull the levers of our behavior directly. But they affect the wiring and workings of the brain, and… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Of course genes can’t pull the levers of our behavior directly. But they affect the wiring and workings of the brain, and… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
All our behaviours are a result of neurophysiological activity in the brain. — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“Cas Wouters, inspired by conversations with Elias late in his life, suggests that we are living through a new phase in the… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“Attempts to explain behavior in mechanistic terms are commonly denounced as “reductionist” or “determinist.” The denouncers rarely know exactly what they mean… — 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
