Steven Pinker Quotes - Page 11

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• So no, it's not all in the genes, but what isn't in the genes isn't in the family environment either. It can't be explained in terms of the overall personalities or the child-rearing practices of parents.

  Steven Pinker

  Children, Practice, Personality

  "A biological understanding of human nature". Edge Interview, www.edge.org. September 18, 2017.

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• Tom Hanks, who starred in 'The Da Vinci Code,' turns out to be related to a number of the historic characters that feature in 'The Da Vinci Code,' including William the Conqueror and Shakespeare.

  Steven Pinker

  Character, Numbers, Historic

  "Surprising Family Trees!". abcnews.go.com. October 18, 2007.

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• Evolutionary psychology is one of four sciences that are bringing human nature back into the picture.

  Steven Pinker

  Psychology, Four, Human Nature

  "A biological understanding of human nature". Edge Interview, www.edge.org. September 18, 2017.

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• There is no society ever discovered in the remotest corner of the world that has not had something that we would consider the arts. Visual arts - decoration of surfaces and bodies - appears to be a human universal.

  Steven Pinker

  Art, World, Body

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• Theories of art carry the seeds of their own destruction.

  Steven Pinker

  Art, Destruction, Theory

  Steven Pinker (2009). “How the Mind Works”, p.523, W. W. Norton & Company

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• There's a misconception that survival of the fittest means survival of the most aggressive. The adjective 'Darwinian' used to refer to ruthless competition; you used to read that in business journals. But that's not what Darwinian means to a biologist; it's whatever leads to reproductive success.

  Steven Pinker

  Mean, Competition, Survival

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• If the cartoon were completely accurate, though, life would be a cacophany of spoinks.

  Steven Pinker

  Cartoon, Would Be, Accurate

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• We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.

  Steven Pinker

  Children, Views, Law

  Steven Pinker (2011). “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”, p.480, Penguin

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• Statisticians tell us that people underestimate the sheer number of coincidences that are bound to happen in a world governed by chance.

  Steven Pinker

  Numbers, People, World

  "Proud atheists". Salon Interview, www.salon.com. October 15, 2007.

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• I think students should know something about religion as a historical phenomenon, in the same way that they should know something about socialism and humanism and the other great ideas that have shaped political philosophies and therefore the course of human events.

  Steven Pinker

  Philosophy, Thinking, Ideas

  "Proud atheists". Interview with Steve Paulson, www.salon.com. October 15, 2007.

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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 both. Anarchy is one of the main reasons for violence, and it may be the most important.

  Steven Pinker

  People, Important, Warfare

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• The reason the United States is not so likely to invade Iran is precisely because of the lessons learned from Iraq. And conversely, the Iranian push towards nuclear capability is calculated to deter invasions like the kind deposing Saddam Husain.

  Steven Pinker

  Iran, Iraq, Lesson Learned

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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 researchers and anyone who would claim to have discovered the opposite. No one needs a scientist to measure whether humans are prone to knavery. The question has been answered in the history books, the newspapers, the ethnographic record, and the letters to Ann Landers. But people treat it like an open question, as if someday science might discover that it's all a bad dream and we will wake up to find that it is human nature to love one another.

  Steven Pinker

  Dream, Selfish, Book

  "How the Mind Works". Book by Steven Pinker, 1997.

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• An ideology can provide a satisfying narrative that explains chaotic events and collective misfortunes in a way that flatters the virtue and competence of believers, while being vague or conspiratorial enough to withstand skeptical scrutiny.

  Steven Pinker

  Events, Narrative, Way

  "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined". Book by Steven Pinker, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2011.

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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 to breed dangerous subcultures of rootless young men.

  Steven Pinker

  Moving, Men, Empowering

  Steven Pinker (2011). “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”, p.16, Penguin

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• It is true that raids and battles killed a tiny percentage of the numbers that die in modern warfare. But in tribal violence, the clashes are more frequent, the percentage of men in the population who fight is greater, and the rates of death per battle are higher.

  Steven Pinker

  Fighting, Men, Numbers

  "A History of Violence" by Steven Pinker, newrepublic.com. March 19, 2007.

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• It's likely that taboo words are stored in the right hemisphere of the brain. Massive left hemisphere strokes or the entire surgical removal of the left hemisphere can leave people with no articulate speech other than the ability to swear, spout cliches and song lyrics.

  Steven Pinker

  Song, People, Brain

  "This much I know". Interview with Tom Templeton, www.theguardian.com. June 21, 2008.

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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 a sharp blow or by insufficient oxygen.

  Steven Pinker

  Blow, Oxygen, Knives

  Steven Pinker (2009). “How the Mind Works”, p.64, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Disgust is intuitive microbiology

  Steven Pinker

  Microbiology, Disgusting, Intuitive

  Steven Pinker (2009). “How the Mind Works”, p.383, W. W. Norton & Company

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• My politics were pretty anarchistic until 1969 when the Montreal police went on strike. Within hours, mayhem and rioting broke out and the Mounties had to be called in to restore order. It instilled in me that one's convictions can be subjected to empirical test.

  Steven Pinker

  Order, Police, Tests

  "This much I know". Interview with Tom Templeton, www.theguardian.com. June 21, 2008.

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• Forcing modern speakers of English to not - whoops, not to split an infinitive because it isn't done in Latin makes about as much sense as forcing modern residents of England to wear laurels and togas.

  Steven Pinker

  Latin, Writing, Editing

  Steven Pinker (1994). “The Language Instinct”, William Morrow & Company

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