Nature of man Quotes by Steven Pinker

16 Nature of man quotes by Steven Pinker

All Nature of man quotes Steven Pinker’s page

Steven Pinker tackles the human condition with a sharp, evidence‑driven voice. His reflections balance cognitive science and cultural history, offering a nuanced glimpse into why we think and act the way we do.

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“I suggested that a better understanding of human nature in the light of modern science can point the way to an approach…

Steven Pinker

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Technology, ideology, and social and cultural changes periodically throw out new forms of violence for humanity to contend with.

Steven Pinker

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Equality is not the empirical claim that all groups of humans are interchangeable; it is the moral principle that individuals should not…

Steven Pinker

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My opinions about human nature are shared by many psychologists, linguists, and biologists, not to mention philosophers and scholars going back centuries.

Steven Pinker

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With violence, as with so many other concerns, human nature is the problem, but human nature is also the solution.

Steven Pinker

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Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.

Steven Pinker

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“Everyone has a theory of human nature. Everyone has to anticipate the behavior of others, and that means we all need theories…

Steven Pinker

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It begins with skepticism. The history of human folly, and our own susceptibility to illusions and fallacies, tell us that men and…

Steven Pinker

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It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer. But it was also natural to think that…

Steven Pinker

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“It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer. But it was also natural to think that…

Steven Pinker

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The task of evolutionary psychology is not to weigh in on human nature, a task better left to others. It is to…

Steven Pinker

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“The dread of a permanently wicked human nature takes two forms. One is a practical fear: that social reform is a waste…

Steven Pinker

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When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power…

Steven Pinker

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Some people think that evolutionary psychology claims to have discovered that human nature is selfish and wicked. But they are flattering the…

Steven Pinker

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“Humans are not innately good (just as they are not innately evil), but they come equipped with motives that can orient them…

Steven Pinker

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“Though many of my arguments will be coolly analytical — that an acknowledgment of human nature does not, logically speaking, imply the…

Steven Pinker

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More by Steven Pinker

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

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Consistent style prevents presentation from getting in the way of content.

Steven Pinker

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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

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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

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As many political writers have pointed out, commitment to political equality is not an empirical claim that people are clones.

Steven Pinker

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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

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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

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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

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“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

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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

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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

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“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

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If you look in general at people who live in anarchy, they have quite high rates of death from either homicide or warfare or…

Steven Pinker

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“In some eras, self-control defines the paragon of a decent person: a grown-up, a person of dignity, a lady or a gentleman, a mensch.…

Steven Pinker

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Knowledge is a continuous fabric, in which ideas are connected to other ideas. Reason-free zones, in which people can assert arbitrary beliefs safe from…

Steven Pinker

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