Steven Pinker
Key learnings from Steven Pinker: The better angels of our nature
Thursday, November 3, 2011 · Topics: population-growth, violence
Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species’s existence. For most of history, war, slavery, infanticide, child abuse, assassinations, pogroms, gruesome punishments, deadly quarrels, and genocide were ordinary features of life. But today, Pinker shows (with the help of more than a hundred graphs and maps) all these forms of violence have dwindled and are widely condemned. How has this happened? · Read more →
Steven Pinker on the myth of violence
Monday, October 24, 2011 · Topics: emotional-intelligence, peace, violence
From TED: Steven Pinker charts the decline of violence from Biblical times to the present, and argues that, though it may seem illogical and even obscene, given Iraq and Darfur, we are living in the most peaceful time in our species’ existence. · Watch video →
Talk of the Nation: Can science shape human values? And should it?
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 · Topics: morality, skeptics, spirituality, values
From NPR: Ira Flatow talks with scientists and philosophers Sam Harris, Steven Pinker, Lawrence Krauss, Simon Blackburn about the origins of human values, and the influence of modern scientific thought on human values. Even if science can shape human morals, should it? Or does science bring its own set of preconceptions and prejudices to moral questions? · Go to Talk of the Nation: Can science shape human values? And should it? →
The Moral Instinct by Steven Pinker
Thursday, February 7, 2008 · Topics: morality, neuroscience, psychology
From NY Times: Moral intuitions are being drawn out of people in the lab, on Web sites and in brain scanners, and are being explained with tools from game theory, neuroscience and evolutionary biology. · Go to The Moral Instinct by Steven Pinker →
Why has Steven Pinker studied verbs for 20 years?
Thursday, October 25, 2007 · Topics: language, neuroscience
The rules of language may reveal how our brains really work. · Go to Why Has Steven Pinker Studied Verbs for 20 Years? →
Steven Pinker: The stuff of thought
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 · Topics: human-development, violence
From TED: Steven Pinker takes on violence. Pinker charts a history of violence from Biblical times through the present, and concludes that modern society has less to feel guilty about. · Watch video →
Steven Pinker
Tuesday, May 29, 2007 · Topics: neuroscience, psychology
Professor Department of Psychology, Harvard: conducts research on language and cognition, author of The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works. · Go to Steven Pinker →
