Steven Pinker

My opinions about human nature are shared by many psychologists, linguists, and biologists, not to mention philosophers and scholars going back centuries. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#back #biologists #centuries #going #human

People today sometimes get uncomfortable with empirical claims that seem to clash with their political assumptions, often because they haven't given much thought to the connections. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#because #claims #clash #connections #empirical

Many artists and scholars have pointed out that ultimately art depends on human nature. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#artists #depends #human #human nature #many

The great appeal of the doctrine that the mind is a blank slate is the simple mathematical fact that zero equals zero. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#blank #blank slate #doctrine #equals #fact

There has to be innate circuitry that does the learning, that creates the culture, that acquires the culture, and that responds to socialization. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#creates #culture #does #innate #learning

Why are empirical questions about how the mind works so weighted down with political and moral and emotional baggage? ↗

— Steven Pinker

#baggage #down #emotional #empirical #how

Personality and socialization aren't the same thing. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#same #socialization #thing

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

— Steven Pinker

#bringing #evolutionary #four #human #human nature

Art works because it appeals to certain faculties of the mind. Music depends on details of the auditory system, painting and sculpture on the visual system. Poetry and literature depend on language. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#art #auditory #because #certain #depend

As many political writers have pointed out, commitment to political equality is not an empirical claim that people are clones. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#clones #commitment #empirical #equality #many