Habits Quote by Steven Pinker

Reductionism is a dirty word, and a kind of 'holistier than thou' self-righteousness has become fashionable.

— Richard Dawkins

“Behaviorism entails the systematic denial of meaning, a denial which does violence to both the evidence and the everyday experience of humanity.”

— Theodore Dalrymple

[R]eductionism' is one of those things, like sin, that is only mentioned by people who are against it. To call oneself a reductionist will…

— Richard Dawkins

“The attempt to interpret human behavior in terms of models derived from the natural sciences eventually destroys personal responsibility.”

— Lesslie Newbigin

We have opted for petty determinisms - childhood trauma, genetic inheritance, social conditioning, etc. - that have made us comparatively passive. We seem to…

— Marilynne Robinson

It's a misconception that an intelligent person can't act and I want people to discard such notions.

— Padmapriya Janakiraman

“Their thinking challenged many notions that were gospel in psychology and among the general public, such as the behaviorist's view that people do things…

— Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson

“If a man acts in a purely mechanical way, reacting to external demands or instruction rather than in ways determined by his own interests…

— Noam Chomsky

All forms of self-defeating behavior are unseen and unconscious, which is why their existence is denied.

— Vernon Howard

“Instead of regarding them as things that just need to go away, we look at the behaviors as a precious resource, valuable information that…

— Robert Kegan

“Understanding men or ideas or movements, or the outlooks of individuals or groups, is not reducible to a sociological classification into types of behaviour…

— Isaiah Berlin

Someone who is perennially surprised that depravity exists, who continues to feel disillusioned (even incredulous) when confronted with evidence of what humans are capable…

— Susan Sontag