Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Steven Arthur "Steve" Pinkeris a Canadian-born American cognitive scientist, psychologist, linguist, and popular science author. He is Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, and is known for his advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth18 September 1954
CountryCanada
atheism serious jew
I never outgrew my conversion to atheism at 13, but at various times was a serious cultural Jew.
writing hockey ice
I like ice hockey. No one is ever going to ask me to write about that as a metaphor for life.
mysterious beneath-the-surface surface
I get drawn in when I feel there is something deep and mysterious going on beneath the surface of something.
radical thinker
I don't consider myself to be that radical a thinker.
genes genome entirety
Heritability pertains to the entirety of the genome, not to a single gene.
commitment equal-treatment issues
Equity feminism is a moral doctrine about equal treatment that makes no commitments regarding open empirical issues in psychology or biology.
business lied life origin
You don't like to be lied to, by your friends or in your business dealings. So why would you want to be lied to when it comes to the origin of life or the fate of the planet?
economic number personal
There is a correlation between economic inequality and personal violence. The explanation for the correlation isn't completely clear; there are a number of possibilities.
actual arranged billion cells goes hundred individual level nerve trillion ways
The actual organization of behavior goes on the level of the individual nerve cells and their connections, and we have a hundred billion nerve cells, probably a hundred trillion connections. It's just mind-boggling to think of all the different ways in which they're arranged in a baby's head.
everywhere government less life
Everywhere you look for comparisons of life under anarchy and life under government, life under government is less violent.
alive bargain chance death dying painful premature takes
Part of the bargain of being alive is that one takes a chance at dying a premature or painful death, be it from violence, accident, or disease.
associated evokes hear raw word
You can't hear a word and just hear it as raw sound; it always evokes an associated meaning and emotion in the brain.
contempt department job learned running saw students worst younger
My worst boss was a departmental chair who never learned to appreciate new developments in the field. He had contempt for students and younger researchers, and he saw the job of running the department as a nuisance.
cooperate develop evolved fact goes hand
I don't think language could have evolved if it was the only distinctive trait. It goes hand in hand with our ability to develop tools and technologies, and also with the fact that we cooperate with nonrelatives.