Steven Pinker

Also known as Steven Arthur Pinker, Dr. Steven Pinker, Pinker, Steven

Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist, and author, an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of the mind

AI overview

Steven Pinker is a Canadian-American psychologist and linguist who studies how the mind works, viewing it through the lens of evolution and computation. His work matters because it offers influential perspectives on human nature, language, and thinking that have shaped modern discussions in psychology and beyond.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 1954
Works: 34

Top works

Ketsad poʻel ha-moaḥ
言語を生みだす本能
人間の本性を考える
What Are You Optimistic About?
Enlightenment now

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: United States
Active from: 1954-09-18

Official site

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 2,556
Total plays: 24,790

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Fast gapped-read alignment with Bowtie 2
· 2012 · cited 52,871x
Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks
· 1998 · cited 33,751x
The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3)
· 2016 · cited 22,939x
HISAT: a fast spliced aligner with low memory requirements
· 2015 · cited 21,535x
Ultrafast and memory-efficient alignment of short DNA sequences to the human genome
· 2009 · cited 19,790x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“I predict it will come to be seen as a turning point in the history of psychology.”
“The elegant study... is consistent with the themes of modern cognitive neuroscience. Every aspect of thought and emotion is rooted in brain structure and function, including many psychological disorders and, presumably, genius. The study confirms that the brain is a modular system comprising multiple intelligences, mostly nonverbal.”
“The idea that thought is the same thing as language is an example of what can be called a conventional absurdity: a statement that goes against all common sense but that everyone believes because they dimly recall having heard it somewhere and because it is so pregnant with implications.”
“The human brain is an exquisitely complex organ that evolved only once. The elephant's trunk, which can stack logs, uproot trees, pick up a dime, remove thorns, powder the elephant with dust, siphon water, serve as a snorkel, and scribble with a pencil, is another complex organ that evolved only once.”
“Galileo wrote that 'the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics; without its help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it.'”
“Status is the public knowledge that you possess assets that would allow you to help others if you wished to.”

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Wikidata facts

Official website: stevenpinker.com
Image: Steven Pinker in 2023 A 04 (cropped).jpg

Show 7 more facts

Commons category: Steven Pinker
date of birth: 1954-09-18
Commons gallery: Steven Pinker
name in native language: Steven Arthur Pinker
short name: Steven Pinker
social media followers: 801812
affiliation string: Harvard University

Sources (13)

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~33 min read

Article

Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University.

Steven Pinker specializes in visual cognition and developmental linguistics, as well as a number of experimental topics. Pinker has written two technical books that proposed a general theory of language acquisition. In particular, his work with Alan Prince posited that children use default rules sometimes in error but are obliged to learn irregular forms one by one. Pinker is the author of nine books for general audiences. The Language Instinct (1994), How the Mind Works (1997), Words and Rules (2000), The Blank Slate (2002), and The Stuff of Thought (2007) posit that language is an innate behavior shaped by natural selection and adapted to our communication needs. Pinker's The Sense of Style (2014) is a general language-oriented style guide. Pinker's book The Better Angels of Our Nature (2010) posits that violence in human societies has generally declined over time, and identifies six major trends and five historical forces of this decline. Enlightenment Now (2018) further argues that the human condition has generally improved over recent history because of reason, science, and humanism. The nature and importance of reason is also discussed in his book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters (2021).