All Steven Pinker Quotes
- the mind is a neural computer Computer
- Just as blueprints don't necessarily specify blue buildings, selfish genes don't necessarily specify selfish organisms. As we shall see, sometimes the most selfish thing a… Blue
- Nature is a hanging judge," goes an old saying. Many tragedies come from our physical and cognitive makeup. Our bodies are extraordinarily improbable arrangements of… Adapted
- Of course genes can’t pull the levers of our behavior directly. But they affect the wiring and workings of the brain, and the brain is… Abstract
- If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values… Abandon
- If the cartoon were completely accurate, though, life would be a cacophany of spoinks. Accurate
- One can choose to obsess over prescriptive rules, but they have no more to do with human language than the criteria for judging cats at… Biology
- Solving a problem in a hundred years is, practically speaking, the same as not solving it at all. All
- Trivers, pursuing his theory of the emotions to its logical conclusion, notes that in a world of walking lie detectors the best strategy is to… According
- Disgust is intuitive microbiology Disgust
- The idea that boys want to sleep with their mothers strikes most men as the silliest thing they have ever heard. Obviously, it did not… Boy
- Fiction is empathy technology. Empathy
- The typical imperative from biology is not "Thou shalt... ," but "If ... then ... else. Biology
- The supposedly immaterial soul, we now know, can be bisected with a knife, altered by chemicals, started or stopped by electricity, and extinguished by a… Altered
- Thanks to the redundancy of language, yxx cxn xndxrstxnd whxt x xm wrxtxng xvxn xf x rxplxcx xll thx vxwxls wxth xn "x" (t gts… F Y
- The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If… Any
- Much of what is today called "social criticism" consists of members of the upper classes denouncing the tastes of the lower classes (bawdy entertainment, fast… Bawdy
- Some people think that evolutionary psychology claims to have discovered that human nature is selfish and wicked. But they are flattering the researchers and anyone… All
- The more you think about and interact with other people, the more you realize that it is untenable to privilege your interests over theirs, at… Any
- Dear White Fella When I am born I’m black When I grow up I’m black When I am sick I’m black When I go out… Black