New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker possesses that rare combination of scientific aptitude and verbal eloquence that enables him...
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Mar 10, 2009
Trevor
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It is remarkable how much of modern thought can track its genetic heritage back to Kant. When I studied Kant at uni I was told that there was an entire school of philosophy that was formed on the basis of a poor (mis)translation of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason into English. I always liked the idea of that.
It is also nice to hear someone talking about Kant and not talking about ‘the unknowability of the thing in itself’ – often the only bit of Kant anyone knows. One of the thin More...
It is also nice to hear someone talking about Kant and not talking about ‘the unknowability of the thing in itself’ – often the only bit of Kant anyone knows. One of the thin More...
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Apr 23, 2008
Alex
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The Stuff of Thought succeeds where his last book, The Blank Slate, failed. Here, Pinker largely abandons the heredity vs. environment debate for a discussion of the mind itself, and what role language plays in human thinking.
Drawing from Immanuel Kant, who first proposed the concept of a priori cognitive frameworks of time and space (so-called "pure intuitions") in his Critique of Pure Reason, Pinker argues that the human brain comes equipped with an innate understandi More...
Drawing from Immanuel Kant, who first proposed the concept of a priori cognitive frameworks of time and space (so-called "pure intuitions") in his Critique of Pure Reason, Pinker argues that the human brain comes equipped with an innate understandi More...
Aug 03, 2008
Jafar
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It’s hard to review this book. The book starts off to look too heavy with a long chapter on verbs. If you think verbs are simple things that are classified into transitive and intransitive, you’re in for a big surprise. The chapter is named Down the Rabbit Hole after how Alice ended up in Wonderland. And the world of verbs is quite a Wonderland. This chapter can seem a bit too technical and tedious unless you really love language. There’s a chapter about the relationship between language and int
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Feb 25, 2008
liz
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I love Steven Pinker. LOVE Steven Pinker. But I also think Linguistics is the Best Thing Ever. So I loved SP's book "The Language Instinct" (even though a lot of it was old news to me, since I was fresh off of my linguistics course), and I was super-stoked for this one. Well, the first couple of chapters were not that great. But things totally picked up after that! Once his focus widened from strictly the brain to the influence of language on culture, the type of things that were
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Jan 23, 2010
Joshua Nomen-Mutatio
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Listened to this on audiobook last night/this morning after having just returned from seeing Pinker speak at UW-Madison last evening, which was excellent and a real treat for this cognitive science and evolutionary psychology nerd and huge fan of Steven Pinker. Books like this are too rich and complex to give a half-assed review of, or one where I just write clever anecdotes about my life and vaguely tie them to some idea in the book, like a blog entry beneath a book, awaiting your votes. Not
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Feb 14, 2009
Kevan
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I've read a number of Pinker's books.
I very much enjoyed The Language Instinct and quite enjoyed How the Mind Works.
I read Words and Rules when living in Thailand and learning Thai. I had real problems mapping what he had to say from English to Thai. What he had to say about English and its implication for how the Mind/Language engine work simply did not seem to be true.
The Stuff of Thought seems much more solid though and I am finding it quite fascinating.
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I very much enjoyed The Language Instinct and quite enjoyed How the Mind Works.
I read Words and Rules when living in Thailand and learning Thai. I had real problems mapping what he had to say from English to Thai. What he had to say about English and its implication for how the Mind/Language engine work simply did not seem to be true.
The Stuff of Thought seems much more solid though and I am finding it quite fascinating.
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Oct 15, 2007
Andrew
rated it:
Like taking his class but with less Powerpoint-induced drowsiness.
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Oct 01, 2011
Jennifer
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If you like cognitive psychology and linguistics, you will really enjoy this book. I particularly enjoyed Pinker's discussion of metaphors and analogies and how our thoughts and our science are both limited and expanded by the metaphors we have in our language. When I finished this book, I felt a rush as though I stepped outside of my thought processes and limited ways of knowing the world momentarily and could see much broader implications for diplomacy, cross-cultural understanding, science,
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Jun 09, 2008
Justin
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Great expose of how the mind can be exposed through the semantics and structure of language.
I was bogged down my the technical aspects of verbs and grammar towards the beginning of the book but the second half really hit its stride as Pinker explains metaphors, the need for taboos, expletives and indirect language.
A worthwile read for those wishing to learn more about humanity and the illogical quirks that make us interesting.
Most importantly, the purpose o More...
I was bogged down my the technical aspects of verbs and grammar towards the beginning of the book but the second half really hit its stride as Pinker explains metaphors, the need for taboos, expletives and indirect language.
A worthwile read for those wishing to learn more about humanity and the illogical quirks that make us interesting.
Most importantly, the purpose o More...
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Feb 25, 2008
Megan
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
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Jan 21, 2008
Gwen
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A friend gave me this book. I didn't like Pinker's other one and I don't like this one. This isn't a knee-jerk reaction from a sociologist; socio-biological explanations are generally examples of people reading their own interpretations of the social world, and how it "ought" to be, back into "history" and saying that it's natural. The arguments themselves are contradictory--men evolved to be promiscuous and sleep with any woman, except they also evolved to not sleep with ugl
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Jun 17, 2008
Aaron
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Fascinating, funny and dazzlingly cunning contemporary science. Reveals how we mysteriously know how to organise verbs, the overwhelming prevalence of metaphor in our thinking, why neologisms fail, why names vary over time, why swearing is necessary, and crucially where our evolved view of the world falls short, leaving us vulnerable.
There's a lot here, and a couple of the end chapters feel more speculative than the confident earlier ones, but this is a mine of insight for anyone int More...
There's a lot here, and a couple of the end chapters feel more speculative than the confident earlier ones, but this is a mine of insight for anyone int More...
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Feb 05, 2009
By examining our words, we can learn a lot about who we are. So argues Harvard academic and popular science writer Steven Pinker in The Stuff of Thought, a logical extension of his previous books. Pinker once again caters to a popular (though scientifically literate) audience, using accessible examples from jokes, Shakespeare, pop songs, and films to understand the science. One fascinating chapter explores the value of metaphors; another covers swearing (did you know that "gee whiz" is
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Sep 02, 2011
Patrick
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Amazon review:
Is there a difference between the meanings of these two sentences?
(1) Hal loaded hay into the wagon, and,
(2) Hal loaded the wagon with hay.
Well, Steven Pinker claims there is a difference and it's a difference that reveals something about the way the mind conceptualizes experience. That is "the stuff of thought" with which Pinker's latest book is concerned, and this "stuff," as he convincingly demonstrates, can be made acces More...
Is there a difference between the meanings of these two sentences?
(1) Hal loaded hay into the wagon, and,
(2) Hal loaded the wagon with hay.
Well, Steven Pinker claims there is a difference and it's a difference that reveals something about the way the mind conceptualizes experience. That is "the stuff of thought" with which Pinker's latest book is concerned, and this "stuff," as he convincingly demonstrates, can be made acces More...
Nov 24, 2010
Naxa
rated it:
Remember in 8 Mile, how Eminem had those three or four rap battles that were varying levels of shit up to the end and then he owned everyone with that final one? That is a lot like Steven Pinker's career and that final battle is a lot like this book. I didn't agree with everything in this book, but overall it was better written, had more interesting information and had stronger arguments and evidence in favor of his positions. I have now read every major publication he has written and I can say
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Nov 10, 2010
Alan
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I'm not sure whether I should review this one at all—for one thing, this is my first Pinker, though he's been on my list for awhile, and in retrospect this is probably not the best place to start reading his work. As Steven Pinker himself describes it in the Introduction, The Stuff of Thought is the culmination and convergence of a couple of series of books on how we humans think. Its antecedents are probably much more accessible.
For another thing, there's a lot of material here. Des More...
For another thing, there's a lot of material here. Des More...
Oct 08, 2010
Lars
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Science, like art, opens our eyes to what is in front of us. But unlike art, which honors transcendence and promises infinity, science measures what is observable and defines what is finite. Neuroscientists tell us that the possibilities are not limitless. The equipment we are given performs specific functions. We can adapt our brains to tasks unrelated to these functions, like reading, but this kind of ‘neuronal recycling,’ as Stanislas Dehaene calls it, still makes use of the same old brai
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Aug 07, 2010
Nicholas
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http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1487501.html
I was rather unimpressed by the Pinker book I read last year, but this seemed to be a more coherent assembly of facts and theories relating to linguistics, psychology and philosophy. I'm afraid I still wasn't gripped by it, but that is more to do with my own preferences for intellectual exercise than any fault of the book; I can't get very excited by deep philosophical questions, and psychology has never been an attractive field for me.
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I was rather unimpressed by the Pinker book I read last year, but this seemed to be a more coherent assembly of facts and theories relating to linguistics, psychology and philosophy. I'm afraid I still wasn't gripped by it, but that is more to do with my own preferences for intellectual exercise than any fault of the book; I can't get very excited by deep philosophical questions, and psychology has never been an attractive field for me.
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Jul 10, 2010
Billie
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The thesis of Steven Pinker's Stuff of Thought is that one can examine language (any language) and discover human beings' innate concepts, which in turn reveal the way human beings' naturally structure the world. Pinker thinks that across all languages, the relevant similarities suggest that a class of innate concepts exist as part of human cognition and particularities of and across languages arise due to human roles in specific environments. Here would be an example of the relationship between
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Jun 18, 2010
Kelly
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I thought this was mostly an interesting book. Of course, I have a thing for linguistics and enjoy thinking about language in various contexts. This is the first Pinker book I have managed to finish (I was motivated by a book club), and I still felt some of what kept me from finishing the other one (The Language Instinct). One thing is that I feel like Pinker is very impressed with himself. He clearly has some good ideas, but he freely talks on all of his thoughts, including some that appear a l
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Mar 12, 2010
Gradskata
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Защо псуваме, защо има "горе" и "долу" в езика ни и защо в някои езици тези концепции са нещо като "ляво" и "дясно". Според автора Стивън Пинкър езикът е продукт на най-дълбоката ни биологична човешка природа, а не "страничен продукт" на развитието ни. Затова и в книгата ще намерите няколко обяснения от областта на неврологията за това защо някои думи не могат да се споменат по телевизията.
Книга, богата на идеи, едновременно интегрир More...
Книга, богата на идеи, едновременно интегрир More...
Jul 31, 2009
Douglas
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One of the best books I've read in 2009. I read this book after downloading the first chapter onto my Kindle. It was a very good chapter. It was also the first non-fiction book I read on my Kindle. The next two or three chapters was much harder to get through as it was survey of the different language assimilation theories and why they failed to answer observations Steven Pinker and other see in the real world.
I did find several chapters exceptionally interesting:
The Metaphor Metaphor More...
I did find several chapters exceptionally interesting:
The Metaphor Metaphor More...
Jun 22, 2009
John
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This is a fast read book. Though I don't like Pinker's allegiance to Chomsky, I think he's great for summing up the bunches of different theories and even better at describing the problems in linguistics that people are trying to understand--excellent examples! And he has an entertaining narrative voice. My only beef was that after he spent time talking about fallacious arguments and the people who use them, he tended to attack "radical" or "extreme" versions of theories, the
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Oct 02, 2010
Nathan
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Steven Pinker is well-equipped, with extensive scholarly knowledge of his subject, fluent familiarity with pop culture and a Seinfeldian sense of good humor about the quirks of human nature. These don't mesh all that well, however, so that this often read as a series of jokes, followed by a long section of sociology, and a random reference peppered in. The whole thing doesn't flow well.
It's also a little difficult to warm up to. Pinker analyzes aspects of human communication that ha More...
It's also a little difficult to warm up to. Pinker analyzes aspects of human communication that ha More...
Aug 13, 2011
Derek
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This is a highly thought-provoking journey through the semantics and pragmatics of natural language and what they reveal about human nature. Every chapter has things of interest; each is well-written and entertaining.
For me, the early chapters were the best. Pinker picks apart some of the English verb system, along with some related parts-of-speech, especially prepositions and particles, to reveal an underlying conceptual framework. I found myself reflecting on the folk wisdom that the More...
For me, the early chapters were the best. Pinker picks apart some of the English verb system, along with some related parts-of-speech, especially prepositions and particles, to reveal an underlying conceptual framework. I found myself reflecting on the folk wisdom that the More...
Jan 01, 2008
Mary
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I really enjoyed this book. I kept annoying my family and friends with new factoids. I learned useful things about how language illustrates limits in our thought processes, but also how it can overcome those limits. I hope I can put this to use in avoiding bad arguments, arguing against poorly thought out pseudo-science, and explaining difficult concepts to non-scientists. But even if I can't, it was still fascinating.
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Sep 01, 2009
getAbstract
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Theoretical discussion of language
Steven Pinker’s enthusiasm about language comes through everywhere in this book – which is a good thing, because the subject matter itself is dense and complex. This combination results in a curious reading experience: Pinker’s lively style, many anecdotes and extreme lucidity pull you forward in the text, but the difficulty of the questions he raises could stump you for some time. He explores many linguistic theories in such depth that readers witho More...
Steven Pinker’s enthusiasm about language comes through everywhere in this book – which is a good thing, because the subject matter itself is dense and complex. This combination results in a curious reading experience: Pinker’s lively style, many anecdotes and extreme lucidity pull you forward in the text, but the difficulty of the questions he raises could stump you for some time. He explores many linguistic theories in such depth that readers witho More...
Jul 07, 2009
Joseph
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Pinker is a true joy to read, and this book may be his best yet. He examines aspects of human language--including politeness, profanity, metaphor, and the details of word meanings--and shows how they reveal deep structure and knowledge about how our minds conceptualize the world and deal with problem solving and social interactions. As always, Pinker's writing is both smart and witty--the book is packed with scientific findings and often quite technical (though never hard to follow), and I learn
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Jun 12, 2009
Nat
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Pinker can cleave through huge piles of philosophical disputes to present an ordered, engaging picture of language and thought. This ability is most impressively displayed in a chapter that contrasts Pinker's favored view, "conceptual semantics", with competitors like Fodor's anti-decompositional picture of concepts, and the radical pragmatist view that treats concepts as completely context-sensitive and flexible. I challenge anyone who has any acquaintance with those debates to descri
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Apr 13, 2010
bonnie
rated it:
I have this on audio book, and it's pretty interesting so far.
UPDATE:
A word about audio books: I never really thought I would like them. I tend to zone when I'm listening to one person talk for a really long time. I particularly disliked the notion of fiction audiobooks, because I tend to speed-read/skim when I read fiction unless the prose is really really high quality. By contrast, I tend not to read nonfiction much at all because my job involves a lot of it and fi More...
UPDATE:
A word about audio books: I never really thought I would like them. I tend to zone when I'm listening to one person talk for a really long time. I particularly disliked the notion of fiction audiobooks, because I tend to speed-read/skim when I read fiction unless the prose is really really high quality. By contrast, I tend not to read nonfiction much at all because my job involves a lot of it and fi More...
