All Steven Pinker Quotes
- As a graduate student, I wrote a long paper connecting the dots between mathematical models of learning and language development in children. It was published… Children
- As individual people, embedded in our daily lives, of course we're interested in what makes one person different from another. We've got to hire one… Course
- Astrology had an important role in the ancient world. You can't understand many things unless you know something about astrology - the plays of Shakespeare… Ancient
- But the newest research is showing that many properties of the brain are genetically organized, and don't depend on information coming in from the senses. Brain
- By exploring the political and moral colorings of discoveries about what makes us tick, we can have a more honest science and a less fearful… Colorings
- 'Capitalism' is a dirty word for many intellectuals, but there are a number of studies showing that open economies and free trade are negatively correlated… Capitalism
- Climate change could produce a lot of misery and waste without necessarily leading to large-scale armed conflict, which depends more on ideology and bad governance… Armed
- Cognitive psychology has shown that the mind best understands facts when they are woven into a conceptual fabric, such as a narrative, mental map, or… Best
- Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because of its reliance on its memory for vivid… Anecdotes
- Commerce is a noble profession, and Jews should get over any self-hatred they might harbor from contemplating the capitalist spirit of diaspora Judaism. Any
- Commerce, trade and exchange make other people more valuable alive than dead, and mean that people try to anticipate what the other guy needs and… Alive
- Consciousness surely does not depend on language. Babies, many animals, and patients robbed of speech by brain damage are not insensate robots; they have reactions… Animal
- Conventions are unstated agreements within a community to abide by a single way of doing things - not because there is any inherent advantage to… Abide
- Economic libertarians and Christian evangelicals, united by their common enemy, are strange bedfellows in today's Republican party, just as the two Georges - the archconservative… Bedfellows
- Evolutionary psychologists seem to want to unmask our noblest motives as ultimately self-interested - to show that our love for children, compassion for the unfortunate… Children
- For one thing, before the 20th century, there were plenty of genocides. We tend to forget about them, partly because they weren't as well documented… Calling
- However much we might deplore the profit motive, or consumerist values, if everyone just wants i-Pods we would probably be better off than if they… Better
- Human evolution, at first, seems extraordinary. How could the process that gave rise to slugs and oak trees and fish produce a creature that can… Boat
- I do look for openings where I can overturn popular misconceptions, but unlike Christopher Hitchens, I am neither a contrarian nor a lone heretic. I… Academics
- I have never been a fan of science fiction. For me, fiction has to explore the combinatorial possibilities of people interacting under the constraints imposed… Author