Language, Cognition, and Human Nature, by Steven Pinker
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Language, Cognition, and Human Nature, by Steven Pinker
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Language, Cognition, and Human Nature collects together for the first time much of Steven Pinker's most influential scholarly work on language and cognition. Pinker's seminal research explores the workings of language and its connections to cognition, perception, social relationships, child development, human evolution, and theories of human nature. This eclectic collection spans Pinker's thirty-year career, exploring his favorite themes in greater depth and scientific detail. It includes thirteen of Pinker's classic articles, ranging over topics such as language development in children, mental imagery, the recognition of shapes, the computational architecture of the mind, the meaning and uses of verbs, the evolution of language and cognition, the nature-nurture debate, and the logic of innuendo and euphemism. Each outlines a major theory or takes up an argument with another prominent scholar, such as Stephen Jay Gould, Noam Chomsky, or Richard Dawkins. Featuring a new introduction by Pinker that discusses his books and scholarly work, this collection reflects essential contributions to cognitive science by one of our leading thinkers and public intellectuals.
Language, Cognition, and Human Nature, by Steven Pinker - Amazon Sales Rank: #166578 in Books
- Published on: 2015-10-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.10" h x 1.30" w x 9.00" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 400 pages
Language, Cognition, and Human Nature, by Steven Pinker Review "Pinker is a star, and the world of science is lucky to have him." -- Richard Dawkins, The Times Literary Supplement, 2002
"Steven Pinker is among the best synthesizers in the cognitive sciences. He is unique in the breadth of his interests and the depth of his knowledge. To top it off, his elegant and witty writings speak equally to specialists and to literate individuals everywhere." -- Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University
"Pinker is an intellectual giant in the field, one of the most important psychologists and thinkers in our day. This compilation is outstanding, a fitting crown on his career so far, although I suspect he has much more to contribute. Even though I'd read a handful of these papers before, there were some that I was unaware of that are gems. Even those I'd read before, I re-read, and got even more on the second reading." -- David Buss, author of Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind
"With wit and acumen, Pinker introduces us to some of his most important scientific contributions. These glimpses into the development of these foundational articles and of course the articles themselves will be of great interest to academics and to his many fans beyond the walls of academia." -- David C. Geary, author of Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Difference
"Pinker is a rarity among academic psychologists not only as a stylish writer, but also as a profound thinker with an ability to grasp the major issues of human nature and human evolution. Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: Selected Articles is as good an introduction as any into the range and depth of his thinking and will have general appeal beyond an academic readership." -Michael Corballis, PsycCRITIQUES
About the Author Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time and The New Republic, and is the author of eight books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules, The Blank Slate, The Stuff of Thought, and, most recently, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful. Not for casual Pinker fans By Aaron C. Brown This review is addressed mainly at general scientific interest readers who liked Stephen Pinker's popular bestsellers like The Blank Slate, The Stuff of Thought and The Better Angels of Our Nature. This book of selected articles covers much of the same ideas. For scientific journal articles the articles are accessible, clear and well-written; but no one would mistake them for non-specialist writing. They take considerably more effort to read than the books, and are much less pleasant. While in return you get some additional scientific precision, that is more than offset by the fact that the articles are dated and reflect only Pinker's work rather than a synthesis of the state of research in the area.Unlike a book, the ideas are not arranged logically with forward and backward references. Instead the assorted papers cover an overlapping set of ideas, with many gaps and repetitions. They do not even present a useful historical perspective on the development of ideas, because Pinker's work is on such a broad array of topics. It's more like a set of snapshots of a bunch of different vacations by different groups, whose only common denominator is Pinker was in each group.I don't mean the book is bad, just that general readers will find Pinker's other books present the same ideas in a far superior format. There is some value in reading historical papers in a scientific field, but for general readers, that means maybe a couple hundred or so papers total in the world, not 20 from one guy. And most of those seminal papers would be more than 50 years old. Pinker's work, along with that of almost all living scientists, is still embedded enough in contemporary thought that there is little perspective added by reading its first drafts. And to the extent there is value in reading these, it would make a lot more sense to put them together on Pinker's website, where people could pick and choose and follow up reference, than to publish them in a book.I'm not qualified to judge the value to professional researchers or instructors, but my guess is the same points (except for the one about pleasure of reading) apply. It might be handy for Pinker's biographer to keep a copy of this around for quick reference, but he or she is going to want original drafts.I'm not sure how to rate this book. Since I can't think of anyone who would want to read it, I can't give it a high rating. But since it's full of fascinating stuff and good writing, I can't give it a low rating. So I went with the middle, three stars.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Oldies But Definitely Goodies By Let's Compare Options Preptorial Steven gives some very honest barbs about the peer review process here, as well as some wonderful reasons for more authors to "go mass" as well as contribute to turbocharged sites like edge dot org instead of, or in addition to journals.The articles dusted off here (inline citations vary between 1960 and 1980, with some 90's) are an eclectic collection from all of Steve's favorite and most popular topics, including developmental, AI, tons of Chomsky/grammar controversies argued deftly from both sides, etc. There's even a "last attempt" reprise of words and rules utilizing irregular verbs. I guess I'm one of the only people on the planet that actually enjoyed that book!DO READ the generous "look inside" feature here on Amazon, as these articles are by Pinker, with Pinker, and liked by Steve, not all written only by him (some are co written or "argued" with other authors), and both scholars and smart lay folk should enjoy seeing some of his "inside" inspiration and ideas as they took shape over many years. The tone is a "little" more clinical and scholarly than REALLY fun books like How the Mind Works, with its offbeat humor, magnificent side stats everywhere, and startling metaphors.Frankly, I find a lot more technical linguistic material here than some of his other popular books. I write compilers and some of the sections on grammar and parsing, as well as mathematical linguistics, were definitely not "dumbed down" for a mass audience, meaning you also need to like this material and have some patience with the "chomsky tree" level of detail. Even so, Steve continually brings this back to the bigger pictures of learning, mind, cognition, AI, etc. which are where much of his brilliant as well as fun insights ring truest.Steve is a little wistful here, and it sucks how much he's been maligned professionally for taking the time to include all of us in his journey. In a candid, revelatory paragraph, he chides his academic critics with a stinging indictment, pointing out that we "mass" readers can be much tougher an audience than the anonymous, "juried" peers, resulting in much higher quality work in many cases IN venues like mass and edge dot org. Insightful.I really liked this book and recommend it highly for Pinker fans, but do caution you to take advantage of the look inside feature here before buying, to be sure the technical level doesn't turn you off. Remember, I liked it a LOT, but I also really enjoyed Words and Rules, which Stevie characterizes as kind of a market flop!I judge the sophistication of an author by how much he seems to understand recursion. Chomsky is the absolute king of the lab there, but Steve is a close second by that criteria. If all math answers "How does A relate to B?" and grammars then stem from essential set theory rules (symbols, properties, rules for inclusion/exclusion), extending that analysis to recursion builds the essence of what makes human language so rich compared to my brilliant and loving Rottweiler: the level of self awareness, which from a grammar frame can be seen as a direct reflection of recursion. If you think that way too, or would be willing to consider it, you'll also love this one I recently discovered on the topic: The Recursive Mind: The Origins of Human Language, Thought, and Civilization. Enjoy!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A must read - if you've got the wherewithal to grapple with it By Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen Steven Pinker is a fantastic writer, as all of his popular science writing shows. This is not popular science, but you can tell it's Pinker.Like others have said, it should be stressed that this book is more demanding than what you tend to find in his popular science books. It shouldn't really come as a surprise, but there you go. What recommends this book to me is the prose style and cogency of argument. For an aspiring academic, it doesn't get much better than this. I certainly try to take notice. Also, you get insights into some truly fascinating academic debates. My personal favorite is the debate on the origin of language (Pinker & Bloom 1990; Pinker & Jackendoff 2005), but that's because it meshes with personal academic interests. There's something for any curious mind here.
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