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" Morality is not just any old topic in psychology but close to our conception of the meaning of life. Moral goodness is what gives each of us the sense that we are worthy human beings. "
Steven Pinker
Life
Goodness
Meaning
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" For one thing, before the 20th century, there were plenty of genocides. We tend to forget about them, partly because they weren't as well documented and partly because, until recently, people didn't care. We used euphemisms like 'sackings' and 'sieges' instead of calling them 'genocides.' "
Steven Pinker
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" I teach classes 28 weeks of the year, but the rest of the time I do research and write books. While I'm writing a book, which I probably do two out of every three years, it's like having a second job. I squeeze in the hours when I can. "
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" The great appeal of the doctrine that the mind is a blank slate is the simple mathematical fact that zero equals zero. "
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" I don't think aggression works like thirst or sleep. I think aggression is more elicited by particular situations. I think it can be mitigated. "
Steven Pinker
Think
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Like
" Most wars are not fought over shortages of resources such as food and water, but rather over conquest, revenge, and ideology. "
Steven Pinker
Over
Water
Revenge
" I'm very interested in language because it reflects our obsessions and ways of conceptualising the world. "
Steven Pinker
World
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Interested
" Capitalism saved the world, and there is even a heretical theory now, moving up from the level of individuals to countries: countries that trade more and have more open economies are less likely to fight wars and less likely to have genocides. "
Steven Pinker
Capitalism
Fight
Moving
" 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
Painting
Poetry
Music
" One of my favourite kinds of movie is the American picaresque, in which the characters make their way across the country, learning about life against the gorgeous backdrops of that vast land. "
Steven Pinker
Country
Way
Life
" Commerce is a noble profession, and Jews should get over any self-hatred they might harbor from contemplating the capitalist spirit of diaspora Judaism. "
Steven Pinker
Spirit
Over
Judaism
" Equity feminism is a moral doctrine about equal treatment that makes no commitments regarding open empirical issues in psychology or biology. "
Steven Pinker
Psychology
Moral
Feminism
" I don't think language could have evolved if it was the only distinctive trait. It goes hand in hand with our ability to develop tools and technologies, and also with the fact that we cooperate with nonrelatives. "
Steven Pinker
Hand
Tools
Think
" Terrorist bombings, like rampage shootings, are events that maximize the amount of publicity per amount of damage. That's why people do them, because they know they will set off a media frenzy. "
Steven Pinker
Know
Events
Will
" We can make fun of hockey fans, but someone who enjoys Homer is indulging the same kind of vicarious bloodlust. "
Steven Pinker
Same
Fans
Someone
" Plants can't very well defend themselves by their behavior, so they resort to chemical warfare, and plants are saturated with toxins and irritants to deter creatures like us who want to eat them. "
Steven Pinker
Eat
Behavior
Plants
" Evolutionary psychologists seem to want to unmask our noblest motives as ultimately self-interested - to show that our love for children, compassion for the unfortunate and sense of justice are just tactics in a Darwinian struggle to perpetuate our genes. "
Steven Pinker
Children
Struggle
Want
" The strongest argument against totalitarianism may be a recognition of a universal human nature; that all humans have innate desires for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The doctrine of the blank slate... is a totalitarian's dream. "
Steven Pinker
Happiness
Human Nature
Life
" Why are empirical questions about how the mind works so weighted down with political and moral and emotional baggage? "
Steven Pinker
Moral
Mind
Political
" Heritability pertains to the entirety of the genome, not to a single gene. "
Steven Pinker
Entirety
Genome
Gene
" In any dispute, each side thinks it's in the right and the other side is demons. "
Steven Pinker
Thinks
Any
Right
" 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. "
Steven Pinker
Science
Political
Moral
" Obviously no language is innate. Take any kid from any race, bring them up in any culture and they will learn the language equally quickly. So no particular language is in the genes. But what might be in the genes is the ability to acquire language. "
Steven Pinker
Language
Kid
Up
" The decline of violence isn't a steady inclined plane from an original state of maximal and universal bloodshed. Technology, ideology, and social and cultural changes periodically throw out new forms of violence for humanity to contend with. "
Steven Pinker
Technology
Humanity
Changes
" I don't consider myself to be that radical a thinker. "
Steven Pinker
Radical
Thinker
Consider
" I get drawn in when I feel there is something deep and mysterious going on beneath the surface of something. "
Steven Pinker
Mysterious
Surface
Deep
" It is true that raids and battles killed a tiny percentage of the numbers that die in modern warfare. But in tribal violence, the clashes are more frequent, the percentage of men in the population who fight is greater, and the rates of death per battle are higher. "
Steven Pinker
Men
Battle
Death
" You don't like to be lied to, by your friends or in your business dealings. So why would you want to be lied to when it comes to the origin of life or the fate of the planet? "
Steven Pinker
Friends
You
Business
" By all measures men are the more violent gender. "
Steven Pinker
Measures
Violent
More
" No matter how inured you get to atrocities, you're still always stunned and shocked by how cruel and wasteful Homo sapiens can be. "
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Cruel
You
Matter
" You could think of an ecosystem as a bunch of antagonistic arms races, almost: Everything that an animal depends upon for food is the body part of some other animal or plant who would just as soon keep that body part for itself. "
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Body
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Plant