“They are distinct enough that our crude instruments can pick up the differences, yet both are healthy instances of that staggeringly improbable,… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Though as a psychologist I like to think that nothing human is foreign to me, I admit to having been repeatedly flabbergasted… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
The human capacity for compassion is not a reflex that is triggered automatically by the presence of another living thing. — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“Many people think that the theory of the selfish gene says that “animals try to spread their genes.” That misstates the facts… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“A bumper sticker from the 1970s read, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“No society can be simultaneously fair, free, and equal. If it is fair, people who work harder can accumulate more. If it… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
With violence, as with so many other concerns, human nature is the problem, but human nature is also the solution. — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because of its reliance on its… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
I think students should know something about religion as a historical phenomenon, in the same way that they should know something about… — 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
