Home / Quotes / Quote by Steven Pinker

Quote by Steven Pinker

“Astrology had an important role in the ancient world. You can't understand many things unless you know something about astrology - the plays of Shakespeare and so on.”

Quote by Steven Pinker

Author

Steven Pinker is a renowned cognitive psychologist, linguist, and author. His research focuses on language, cognition, and human behavior, particularly the relationship between language and thought. Pinker is known for his in-depth research on the evolution of language and his contributions to the field of cognitive science. more

You May Also Like

“But the newest research is showing that many properties of the brain are genetically organized, and don't depend on information coming in from the senses.”

Brain Information Depends Perception Research Property Senses Organized Gmos

Author:Steven Pinker

“By exploring the political and moral colorings of discoveries about what makes us tick, we can have a more honest science and a less fearful intellectual milieu.”

Political Moral Honest Intellectual Discovery Fearful Exploring Tick Milieu

Author:Steven Pinker

“'Capitalism' is a dirty word for many intellectuals, but there are a number of studies showing that open economies and free trade are negatively correlated with genocide and war.”

War Numbers Economy Study Capitalism Trade Dirty Genocide Free Trade Dirty Words

Author:Steven Pinker

“Climate change could produce a lot of misery and waste without necessarily leading to large-scale armed conflict, which depends more on ideology and bad governance than on resource scarcity.”

Produce Depends Conflict Waste Resources Misery Climate Climate Change Scales Ideology Governance Scarcity Large Scale Armed Conflict

Author:Steven Pinker

“Cognitive psychology has shown that the mind best understands facts when they are woven into a conceptual fabric, such as a narrative, mental map, or intuitive theory. Disconnected facts in the mind are like unlinked pages on the Web: They might as well not exist.”

Mind Wells Facts Might Psychology Theory Pages Narrative Maps Fabric Intuitive Woven Cognitive Disconnected

Author:Steven Pinker

“Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because of its reliance on its memory for vivid anecdotes rather than systematic statistics.”

Mind Humans Memories Psychology Illusion Vulnerable Statistics Human Mind Vivid Reliance Systematic Fallacy Cognitive Anecdotes

Author:Steven Pinker

“Commerce is a noble profession, and Jews should get over any self-hatred they might harbor from contemplating the capitalist spirit of diaspora Judaism.”

Should Self Might Spirit Hatred Jew Noble Profession Capitalist Contemplating Commerce Get Over Judaism Harbors Self Hatred Diaspora Noble Profession

Author:Steven Pinker

“Commerce, trade and exchange make other people more valuable alive than dead, and mean that people try to anticipate what the other guy needs and wants. It engages the mechanisms of reciprocal altruism, as the evolutionary biologists call it, as opposed to raw dominance.”

People Want Needs Trying Mean Guy Alive Trade Valuable Mechanism Commerce Altruism Anticipate Other Guys Dominance Biologist Reciprocal Needs And Wants

Author:Steven Pinker

“Consciousness surely does not depend on language. Babies, many animals, and patients robbed of speech by brain damage are not insensate robots; they have reactions like ours that indicate that someone's home.”

Doe Home Language Animal Brain Consciousness Baby Depends Speech Patient Reactions Damage Robots

Author:Steven Pinker

“Conventions are unstated agreements within a community to abide by a single way of doing things - not because there is any inherent advantage to the choice, but because there is an advantage to everyone making the same choice.”

Way Choices Community Advantage Agreement Conventions Inherent

Author:Steven Pinker