Steven Pinker
Author
Publisher
Penguin Publishing Group
Pub. Date
2011
Language
English
Formats
Description
“If I could give each of you a graduation present, it would be this—the most inspiring book I've ever read."
—Bill Gates (May, 2017)
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year
The author of Rationality and Enlightenment Now offers a provocative and surprising history of violence.
Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism,...
—Bill Gates (May, 2017)
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year
The author of Rationality and Enlightenment Now offers a provocative and surprising history of violence.
Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism,...
Author
Language
English
Description
"If you are not already a Steven Pinker addict, this book will make you one." -- Jared Diamond
In Words and Rules, Steven Pinker explores profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple phenomenon -- regular and irregular verbs -- and examining it from every angle. With humor and verve, he covers an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities, from the history of languages to how to simulate languages on computers to...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The classic book on the development of human language by the world's leading expert on language and the mind.
In this classic, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Progress. It is one of the animating concepts of the modern era. From the Enlightenment onwards, the West has had an enduring belief that through the evolution of institutions, innovations, and ideas, the human condition is improving. This process is supposedly accelerating as new technologies, individual freedoms, and the spread of global norms empower individuals and societies around the world. But is progress inevitable? Its critics argue that...
Author
Pub. Date
2018
Language
English
Formats
Description
The follow-up to Pinker's groundbreaking The Better Angels of Our Nature presents the big picture of human progress: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. Far from being a naive hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it help us understand why there is so much irrationality in the world? ... Today humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding--and also appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for COVID-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? Pinker rejects the cynical clich©♭ that humans are simply irrational--cavemen...
Author
Publisher
Viking
Pub. Date
©2007
Language
English
Description
Psychologist Pinker explains how the mind works in a completely new way--by examining how we use words. Every time we swear, we reveal something about human emotions. When we use an innuendo to convey a bribe, threat, or sexual come-on (rather than just blurting it out), we disclose something about human relationships. Our use of prepositions and tenses tap into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and our nouns and verbs tap into mental models...
Publisher
Kanopy Streaming
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
How the mind works alters completely the way one thinks about thinking. New York Times first, Steven Pinker illuminated the human language Instinct with unprecedented wit and wisdom. Now, he takes your students on an intellectual journey to the core of How the mind works. In this exclusive presentation for the classroom, Pinker presents his definitive treatise on what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, and feel. With...