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… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
One of my favourite kinds of movie is the American picaresque, in which the characters make their way across the country, learning… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
There has to be innate circuitry that does the learning, that creates the culture, that acquires the culture, and that responds to… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“I find a naturalistic understanding of human nature to be indispensable to leading a wise and mature life, and it is often… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
We really are creatures of a violent world, biologically speaking - watching violence and learning about it is one of our cognitive… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
Semantics is about the relation of words to thoughts, but it also about the relation of words to other human concerns. Semantics… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
As a graduate student, I wrote a long paper connecting the dots between mathematical models of learning and language development in children.… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“Left to our own devices, we are apt to backslide to our instinctive conceptual ways. This underscores the place of education in… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“I suggested that a better understanding of human nature in the light of modern science can point the way to an approach… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
“Science is thus a paradigm for how we ought to gain knowledge—not the particular methods or institutions of science but its value… — Steven Pinker Copy Share Image
I learned to focus my energy on high-quality, long-term projects rather than lower-quality projects with quicker payoffs. — 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
