Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a prominent Canadian-born American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and popular science writer known for his spirited and wide-ranging advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. Photo of S. Pinker, Photo credit: Donna Coveney. ... September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years). ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Experimental psychology is an approach to psychology that treats it as one of the natural sciences, and therefore assumes that it is susceptible to the experimental method. ... Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ... This article is not about the magazine, Popular Science Popular science is interpretation of science intended for a general audience, rather than for other scientists or students. ... Evolutionary psychology (abbreviated ev-psych or EP) is a theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain certain mental and psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as evolved adaptations, i. ... The computational theory of mind is the view that the human mind is best conceived as an information processing system very similar to or identical with a digital computer. ...

Pinker’s academic specializations are visual cognition and language development in children, and he is most famous for popularizing the idea that language is an "instinct" or biological adaptation shaped by natural selection rather than a by-product of general intelligence. His four books for a general audience — The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules and The Blank Slate — have won numerous awards. In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. ... Childrens language development moves from simplicity to complexity. ... A biological adaptation is an anatomical structure, physiological process or behavioral trait of an organism that has evolved over a period of time by the process of natural selection such that it increases the expected long-term reproductive success of the organism. ... Darwins illustrations of beak variation in the finches of the Galápagos Islands, which hold 13 closely related species that differ most markedly in the shape of their beaks. ... The Language Instinct is a book by Steven Pinker, published in 1995, in which he argues the case for the belief that humans are born with an innate capacity for language. ... How the Mind Works is a book by American cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, published in 1996. ... Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language (ISBN 0060958405) is a 1999 popular linguistics book by Steven Pinker on the subject of regular and irregular verbs. ... The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a 2002 book (published by Penguin Putnam, ISBN 0670031518) by Steven Pinker arguing against tabula rasa models of psychology, claiming that the human mind is shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations. ...

Biography

Career

Pinker graduated from Montreal's Dawson College in 1973, received a first class bachelor's degree in experimental psychology from McGill University in 1976, then went on to earn his doctorate in the same discipline at Harvard in 1979. Pinker is currently the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard having previously been director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Facade on Sherbrooke Street West Dawson College (French: ) was the first English CEGEP (Collège denseignement général et professionnel, or College of General and Vocational Education) and is located in Westmount, just west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... McGill University is a publicly funded, co-educational research university located in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1636,[2] Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1636,[2] Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private, coeducational research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

In January 2005, Pinker defended Lawrence Summers, President of Harvard University, whose comments about the gender gap in mathematics and science angered much of the faculty.^[1] Lawrence Henry (Larry) Summers (born November 30, 1954) is an American economist and academic. ... The article previously named gender gap has been moved to gender differences A gender gap generally refers to the systemic differences in the social and economic position of men and women, or boys and girls. ...

Pinker was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2004^[2] and one of Prospect and Foreign Policy's 100 top public intellectuals in 2005.^[3] He has also received honorary doctorates from the universities of Newcastle, Surrey, Tel Aviv and McGill. (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... Prospect is a left-wing monthly British essay and comment magazine covering a wide range of topics, but specialising in politics and current affairs. ... For political interaction among states, see foreign policy. ... See: University of Newcastle (NSW), a university in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia University of Newcastle upon Tyne, a university in England. ... The University of Surrey received its charter on September 9, 1966, and was at that time situated near Battersea Park in south-west London. ... The Engineering Faculty Boulevard The Smolarz Auditorium Tel Aviv University (TAU, אוניברסיטת תל אביב, אתא) is one of Israels major universities. ... McGill University is a publicly funded, co-educational research university located in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ...

Personal

Pinker was born into the English-speaking Jewish community of Montreal, but became an atheist at age thirteen (although he still identifies with various aspects of Jewish culture^[4]). His father, a trained lawyer, first worked as a travelling salesman, while his mother, was first a home-maker then a guidance counselor and high-school vice-principal. He has one brother and one sister.^[5] Pinker has been married and divorced twice, and his current girlfriend, Rebecca Goldstein, is a professor of philosophy at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.^[6] He has no children. Nickname: Motto: Concordia Salus (salvation through harmony) Coordinates: Country Canada Province Quebec Founded 1642 Established 1832 Government  - Mayor Gérald Tremblay Area [1][2][3]  - City 365. ... “Atheist” redirects here. ... Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel by Rebecca Goldstein Rebecca Goldstein (née Newberger, born 1950) is an American novelist, philosopher and teacher. ... Trinity College is a private liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. ...

Theories of language and mind

Pinker is most famous for his work - popularized in The Language Instinct (1994) - on how children acquire language and for his popularization of Noam Chomsky's work on language as an innate faculty of mind. Pinker has suggested an evolutionary mental module for language, although this idea remains controversial. Additionally Pinker argues that many other human mental faculties are evolved, and is an ally of Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins in many evolutionary disputes. The Language Instinct is a book by Steven Pinker, published in 1995, in which he argues the case for the belief that humans are born with an innate capacity for language. ... Language acquisition is the process by which the language capability develops in a human. ... Avram Noam Chomsky (Hebrew and Yiddish: אברם נועם חומסקי) , Ph. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... Modularity of Mind is the notion that a mind may be composed of modules, at least in part. ... Daniel Clement Dennett (b. ... Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ...

Pinker's books, How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate, are seminal works of modern evolutionary psychology, which views the mind as a kind of Swiss-army knife equipped by evolution with a set of specialized tools (or modules) to deal with problems faced by our Pleistocene ancestors. Pinker and other evolutionary psychologists believe the human mind evolved by natural selection, just like other body parts. This view, pioneered as a field by E. O. Wilson, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, is pursued under evolutionary psychology and is a rapidly growing research paradigm, especially among cognitive psychologists. How the Mind Works is a book by American cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, published in 1996. ... The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a 2002 book (published by Penguin Putnam, ISBN 0670031518) by Steven Pinker arguing against tabula rasa models of psychology, claiming that the human mind is shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations. ... Evolutionary psychology (abbreviated ev-psych or EP) is a theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain certain mental and psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as evolved adaptations, i. ... The Pleistocene epoch (IPA: ) is part of the geologic timescale. ... Edward Osborne Wilson (b. ... Leda Cosmides Leda Cosmides, (born May 7, 1957 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American psychologist, who, together with anthropologist husband John Tooby, helped pioneer the field of evolutionary psychology. ... Categories: Possible copyright violations ... Evolutionary psychology (abbreviated ev-psych or EP) is a theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain certain mental and psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as evolved adaptations, i. ...

One of Pinker's more unusual interests is the study of swear words (cursing) and how they represent what he calls "a window into emotion." He has written on the taboo of certain words, various types of swear words that exist in various languages, the grammar of swearing, and the circumstances that lead to swearing.

Selected publications

Books

• Language Learnability and Language Development (1984)
• Visual Cognition (1985)
• Connections and Symbols (1988)
• Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure (1989)
• Lexical and Conceptual Semantics (1992)
• The Language Instinct (1994)
• How the Mind Works (1997)
• Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language (1999)
• The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (2002)
• The Best American Science and Nature Writing (editor and introduction author, 2004)
• Hotheads (an extract from How the Mind Works, 2005)
• The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature (2007)

The Language Instinct is a book by Steven Pinker, published in 1995, in which he argues the case for the belief that humans are born with an innate capacity for language. ... How the Mind Works is a book by American cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, published in 1996. ... Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language (ISBN 0060958405) is a 1999 popular linguistics book by Steven Pinker on the subject of regular and irregular verbs. ... The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a 2002 book (published by Penguin Putnam, ISBN 0670031518) by Steven Pinker arguing against tabula rasa models of psychology, claiming that the human mind is shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations. ...

Articles and essays

• Pinker, S. (1991) Rules of Language. Science, 253, 530–535.
• Ullman, M., Corkin, S., Coppola, M., Hickok, G., Growdon, J. H., Koroshetz, W. J., & Pinker, S. (1997) A neural dissociation within language: Evidence that the mental dictionary is part of declarative memory, and that grammatical rules are processed by the procedural system. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 289–299.
• Pinker, S. (2003) Language as an adaptation to the cognitive niche. In M. Christiansen & S. Kirby (Eds.), Language evolution: States of the Art. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Pinker, S. (2005) So How Does the Mind Work? Mind and Language, 20(1), 1–24.
• Jackendoff, R. & Pinker, S. (2005) The nature of the language faculty and its implications for evolution of language (Reply to Fitch, Hauser, & Chomsky) Cognition, 97(2), 211–225.

References

The Harvard Crimson, the breakfast daily of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. ... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... For political interaction among states, see foreign policy. ... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... November 25 is the 329th (in leap years the 330th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... The Harvard Crimson, the breakfast daily of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. ... February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Steven Pinker

• Steven Pinker's Website
• Article on The Language Instinct by Theodore Dalrymple
• Gen Kuroki's Website about Steven Pinker
• Louis Menand's critique of The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker, originally published in The New Yorker magazine
• "Meet the Flintstones" by Simon Blackburn, a critique of The Blank Slate.
• Steven Pinker Multimedia. Extensive lists of audio and video files.
• Biology vs. the Blank Slate Reason magazine interview with Pinker
• "Steven Pinker: the mind reader," The Guardian Profile, November 6, 1999.
• Evolutionary Psychology of Religion
• "The Blind Programmer", a review of How the Mind Works by Edward Oakes.
• Live interview with Steven Pinker on "The Blank Slate"