Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University where, according to his page on the Universty's website, he conducts research on language and cognition. His books include:


 * The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
 * Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure (Learning, Development and Conceptual Change)
 * Language Learnability and Language Development
 * How the Mind Works
 * Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language
 * The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
 * Better Angels of Our Nature

Critical Assessment

 * Louis Proyect, "Steven Pinker = Hobbes + Pangloss", Blog, 4 October 2011.
 * Edward S. Herman, Steven Pinker on the Triumph of our Better Angels, Z Magazine, March 2012.
 * Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, Reality Denial: Steven Pinker’s Apologetics for Western-Imperial Violence (ColdType, 2012).
 * Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, “Reality Denial: Steven Pinker’s Apologetics for Western-Imperial Violence,” ZNet, July 24, 2012.
 * Stephen Corry, "The case of the ‘Brutal Savage’: Poirot or Clouseau? Why Steven Pinker, like Jared Diamond, is wrong", Open Democracy, 12 June 2013. short version
 * more criticism

Affiliations

 * Visionary, The Vision Project
 * Director, E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
 * TED Brain Trust, TED
 * ACSH Scientific advisors (2009)
 * Fellow, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Sociobiology
 * John Brockman – Pinker's literary agent