Steven Pinker on Human Nature | Big Think

Steven Pinker on Human Nature
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The experimental psychologist discusses the quest for understanding what makes us tick.
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STEVEN PINKER:
Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his nine books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Question: Beyond a simple title, how would you describe what you do for a living?Steven Pinker: What I basically try to do is understand human nature, how the mind works, what makes us tick. What are the patterns of thought, and emotion and motivation that characterize our species? I focus on language partly because you can’t make a living out of studying human nature. It’s just too big a topic. You’ve got to pick something tractable to study. For me it has been language, and indeed for much of my career one little corner of language, namely regular and irregular verbs. And I have my reasons for focusing on that particular corner. I think it sheds light on larger questions about what makes the mind work. But language as a general topic is, I think, a good entrée into human nature for a number of reasons. It’s distinctively human. If you’re interested in general in what makes humans unlike mice and birds, language is a pretty good place to start not only because of language itself - the fact that we make noise with our mouths in order to get ideas across, but because language has to be fine tuned for the kinds of thoughts and the kinds of social relationships that humans want to share and negotiate with one another. So it’s a window into human nature. It’s also figured into debates on human nature, perhaps most famously with Chomsky in the late 1950s using language as a way to rehabilitate the idea of innate mental structure, something that was virtually taboo in the 1950s. He said language was a very good candidate for something that is innately and uniquely human. So it’s an opening wedge for the idea that important parts of the mind are innately structured. It’s also a prime case of mental computation. It’s very hard to make sense of language, of our ability to string words into new combinations, sentences that other people have never heard before but can very quickly understand for the first time without appealing to the idea that we have a mental algorithm, a set of rules, or a recipe or a formula that picks words out of a memory store and strings them together in combinations where the order, as well as the choice of words is meaningful. So language sheds light on the idea that the mind is a computational system.
Question: How did you get into your line of work?Pinker: Certainly since adolescence I was always interested in what makes people tick, and what the implications are for larger questions. If we know something about human emotion and human motivation, does that provide implications for politics how we ought to run society? An ancient question, and one that I was eager to be involved in in the light of modern scientific understanding of human nature; taking into account cognition, and evolution, and genetics, and brain science, and social science. I majored in cognitive psychology, which at the time was a relatively new field, and I thought a tremendously exciting field. It combined experimental psychology with linguistics, and philosophy of mind, and artificial intelligence. And I thought that was an exciting growth area in the 1970s when I picked a major. And I’m still excited by it. I went to Harvard, I think, because it was the site of the cognitive revolution 10 to 15 years earlier. Even though it had pretty much died out by the time that I got there, it still had something of an aura in mind. It probably wasn’t the best choice if the current me could had given advice to the younger me, but it worked out pretty well. And since then I’ve been kind of ricocheting between Harvard and MIT most of my career with a foray to Stanford and a couple of sabbaticals at Santa Barbara. But what I’ve always valued was ideas, conversation, being introduced to some new way...
Read the full transcript at bigthink.com/videos/steven-pi...

[@bigthink]

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[@diegooland1261]

For those that think this talk is some dopy mumbo jumbo I suggest you pick up one of his books and read it. The guy is mind blowing in his depth, breath, and insight.

[@Awibrahor]

His breath is mind blowing? Yuck.

[@diegooland1261]

@@Awibrahor hahaha, what next a fart joke?

[@Awibrahor]

@@diegooland1261 I bet you meant ‘breadth’. 😉

[@Iam_Clau]

His bread, he is a baker now 😅🤣

[@diegooland1261]

@@Awibrahor Thank you grammar scold, my life is so much the richer for your correction.

[@kev3d]

Harvard, MIT...a little Stanford. Methinks this guy aint no dummy.

[@MultiCappie]

One of Canada's finest exports. Hahaha.

[@prayaanshmehta3200]

Understanding human nature -what are the patterns of thought, emotion and motivation that characterize our specie? -language: the window to human nature 1:34 (Chomsky) using language as a way to rehabilitate the idea of innate mental structure -also a prime case for mental computation 5:57 what is pinker working on (as of 2012) -how languages can illuminate our social relationships? -especially why so much of it done veiled? (indirect, innuendo) why are we not fooled? what does that say about human relationships? -hypocrisy, taboo what does it say about the kinds of relationships we have, like dominance v/s intimacy & communality v/s exchange and reciprocity 7:40 passing the salt example -way of preserving the one of several kinds of relationships at the same time 8:52 decoding metaphor -effective memory of language? -why is so much of language metaphorical? -not necessarily poetic ornamentation, but also in terms we don't even realise eg. "He moved the meeting from 3.00 to 4.00" 9:07 "i had to force myself to be polite" 9:25 10:48 why integrate various fields?

[@davidwilkie9551]

"Thinking abstractly", observing or noticing difference, is vital to the survival of an organism, but inclusive and holistic immersion in the principle of all connection is "home" in continuity.

[@akram4179]

this guy actually made me think about a new topic. thats refreshing!

[@MrBlues113]

This was brilliant and insightful, I am amazed by the comment sections, probably most of the people here hasn’t asked all the questions pinker is adres sing here, this is absolutely mind blowing

[@TempestTossedWaters]

Go Pinker! After reading The Blank Slate and The Better Angels of Our Nature I can safely say that he's my personal favourite scientist.

[@sadhanaidu5918]

My psycholinguistics curriculum was covered on the conditioned rating parameter and thank divinity for following you as I wanted to give up on the academia of information.

[@59Disciple]

I am very interested in human nature ,I am so amazed by recent findings of group think,in that how we follow leaders and groups against our own concepts of good. I know that experts can map out profiles of what human beings quite easily . I can see how leadership can abuse this. But subject goes on and on into many area's. we need more understanding that can help people understand our existence, Knowledge can chance everything in your life, but this subject can get clouded much like religion has, however good studies and data can remove the veils here's ,True knowledge means everything to me, there is much we can know that will change you immensly. It is great subject matter,and so important for all of us, It matters not what you believe you will have to fit true knowledge into your present believe system.

[@TeaParty1776]

We follow leaders because of our concept of good.

[@anywallsocket]

@9:49 "it's almost hard to find an example of language that is not metaphorical." this is quite interesting. what is the baseline distinction here, between literal and metaphorical language? did one emerge before the other? and how does meaning switch over time, like cultural shifts of irony and sincerity?

[@StevXtreme]

Just thought about this while he was speaking: subjective experience or consciousness is a very powerful adaptation tool for the individual. While instincts are VERY hard to morph and while physiology is basically set in stone, the conscious memory-thought construct allows for a fantastic and rapid change to input. It is obviously the motor behind social cooperation and behind tool conceptualization and design. (Just putting this out here)

[@jblanchette91]

love the ucsb shout out

[@joshhazelhurst3284]

Great listening to this

[@sucessology7570]

Just subscribed 🙏

[@xanh350]

Whats your book, I want to buy it !

[@Spenglanje]

najjače je kad završi sa pitanjem i posao prepusti tebi :DD

[@mionysus5374]

I think symbols proper and mental representations offer a broader window to human nature, (language is of course symbols, but so are numbers and all manner of religious, scientific, economic, and ideological signs.)

[@IgnitableGR1M]

I know this is off topic from the video but why are some of the vids on the side privet?

[@SCAREDBANANA]

Thats it, I´m getting his books.

[@LightlessDimension]

He is a GENIUS!!!!!!!

[@sadhanaidu5918]

You are testimony to my only primer in life Àll are born GENIUS

[@douglasalvaradocorrales]

Harvard, MIT, Stanford... Dude, ¡respect!

[@Wambumbu]

Steven Pinker seems to have in mind that mind=what the mind grabs a hold of. Of course, by studying language, we can learn about an individual consciousness and what that consciousness think it knows, but that does not necessarily tell us what the nature of that consciousness -or consciousness in general- is.

[@TeaParty1776]

Language tells us that consciousness has the power of language. Consciousness is the consciousness of reality, excepting modern mainstream intellectuals.

[@TheDoriiiiiiiiiiiiii]

Excuse me, could someone tell me please... the transcrip written here doesn't contain all the words he said right? it's just a little fragment isn't it? sorry I have a homework about this video...

[@infintiyward]

It would be a shame if something happened to your etchings upstairs, if you didn't pass the salt..

[@yellowklayman]

I agree with you completely, i never said that the US is anywhere close to what it used to be when it was founded.

[@loopy7057]

I don't know why, but the way this guy talks reminds me of Jim Carrey's "Stefano the Italian man" from A Series of Unfortunate Events 🤣🤣

[@rop.5933]

Question for Mrs. Pinker, what it is a core causality of words that makes a language comes out of a human?

[@darwinlaluna3677]

Sir sorry but I can’t do communicate this time, Highest respect to you

[@derekvonmises6423]

"Would you like to come up and see my etchings?" =p

[@phillee8666]

Human being is the only species who is capable actively to code the languages with vocal sound. Language carries meanings come out or in our mind.

[@sutron05]

Hah "Would you like to come up and see my etchings?"

[@Eric-qc8dt]

"Hey baby, why don't you come take a look at my etchings." *wink, wink*

[@yellowklayman]

It depends on "power of the state" It could be unfair or unjust power to the criminal court system Or what I think you are trying to describe is over regulation I personally support regulating industry to a degree, and reform for the justice system, preferably for rehabilitation more than punishment.

[@queuesnake704]

English (as opposed to books that were painstakingly manually transcribed in Latin by scribes one at a time only for the education of the children of nobles and royalty)

[@kaspinet]

"...Shame if something should happen to it," isnt veiled. If anything, it's even more menacing.

[@ch3nre]

Dammmn! This man just described all the topics i mainly interested in -in the field of psychology.

[@billytowney1303]

Can someone make a looping gif of 0:43 to 0:45.

[@KhaledTheSaudiHawkII]

I need to go to Harvard. I need to transform my mind. Unlock the next level.

[@JamesPerrone-qq1ph]

You need to clean those God damn toilets.

[@coolingen8]

Don Draper How did it go??

[@antonnotna]

But if you say you are moving the meeting from 3 to 4 dont you refere to the clock and moving the pointer from the place were the 3 is to the place where 4 is? And then its not a metaphore? Ps. Drinking a beer with pinker is my dream

[@coolingen8]

anton notna The clock is a metaphor of time...

[@BookofTerra]

Nice fro bro

[@kakobrunob]

They have to start at some point as we did.

[@jeremiahfix5529]

I am really like what he is talking about; using language to analyze the details of how humans tick, sounds weird, I know, but its in a nice way.

[@komronmustafoi6723]

I have to close my eyes and let my brain fire all cylinders to understand Steven Pinker.

[@Grimtheorist]

Paul Reiser?

[@cmd2tuts]

Wide eyed, open mouthed, Whoa.

[@algi6518]

there is a deep language that i suspect starts at the cellular level. Ive seen animals and even insects react at the moment i intended to do something with them or to them. It may sound silly, but i just noticed it too many times and not wanting to submit my mind to spiritual thinking i forced myself to think of another way explanation. Only thing that can explain how something like this can occur is that there is a basic language that can be communicated at long distances with electromagnetic waves, perhaps nature has been already doing this at the cellular level? now how can you connect cellular activity with the mind? the bacteria in your gut. maybe when you kiss and have sex and share food you share your bacteria with each other, and somehow we can send some forms of information of each other like our current state of mind, ie fear/lust/longing (think of people that think of you before you call). if bacteria can send Electromagnetic signals that can be picked up by another bacteria then maybe our mind entails more levels of awareness that we are unaware of... ironically.... we are unaware of our awareness???

[@yellowklayman]

To be clear im talking about "Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis) the belief in liberty and equality." Different from Libertarianism "supporting a society with little or no government power."

[@segismundofromthenewworld4645]

Noise is unwanted sound judged to be unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing

[@nonchalantd]

they both have trademark hair

[@brazilianman92]

I feel there is some truth to that.

[@newazashun]

agree... mirin jaw line

[@amanbytheway5985]

Is there a universal human nature?

[@kakobrunob]

So, are dolphins as 'human' as the human because they also have a very complex mechanism of communication? So, what differentiate us from others animals is language?Thus, nothing separate us from animals them.

[@curselikfucknsailors]

they call me the referee cuz i be so official

[@alanroberts5056]

I'm not one I like some of Mark Twain's work , especially his "what is man ", for a glimpse into Human Nature.

[@GirlSocks]

I said look behind you, not down.

[@gopeace4797]

There was no cognitive revolution. Willhelm Wundt was a cognitive psychologist.

[@yellowklayman]

I don't know if I said this before but everything in moderation, and unfortunately the media always like to look at the extremists from every ideology. Also if we can talk about ideologies with them all done in moderation these would be a list of a basic agenda for Social Democrats legal entitlements for citizens that include -workers' compensation, -universal health care -universal education, -child care and care for the elderly. -collective bargaining rights for workers.

[@_santismo_]

Has he heard of Terrence McKenna, what about visible language and the trans linguistic material, sounds silly but still something about history plus nature and stufffff.

[@yellowklayman]

I would love to have a civilized conversation on why a planetary government is a bad idea. Rather than people screaming NEW WORLD ORDER at each other.

[@marcelluswallace4076]

A one world government would be the ultimate power. No external opposition. If it develops into a tyranny or dictatorship there is no where to go. No exile to organize resistance. It could only be overthrown from the inside and this could take many decades. And maybe it's already to late then. There is a book called "brave new world". In this book the tyranny is eternalized because those who could bring change profit from the system and those who want change are not able to act.

[@waindayoungthain2147]

It’s how’s great been with many as the leaders thoughts in my opinion , clear, sharp pains catalyst hurting crystal in memory. I’m sorry 😊, I hope how we’re together organizations to supporting and I love square with curves at the corner . Not too much sharper but more tenderness please ☺️. As women we are in bound with your life care and saving everyone .

[@user-uc3iu8zv1m]

I think , human kind was influenced by herd rules and regulations ,then they prone to follow even a single trend used by someone even if he just made it for his own philosophy . There for by time others tend to follow such a trends to feel adherence to the group

[@inatist2830]

Nice questions, no answers. Great advertisement! ... Went to buy some of his books

[@cmvamerica9011]

Survival.

[@indiebandit1]

Psychologists dedicate their lives to answer questions such as the one you just presented- for what purpose do human beings engage in any form of behavior at all? Your insinuation is that the natural sciences have a definite value whereas psychology does not, whereas I would merely propose the question: what is responsible for our varying accounts of value at all? Such is a question pertaining towards human nature- of which your half witted tirade of oriented preferences exemplifies as well.

[@chilldude30]

The only reason 'left liberalism' (by that i presume you mean modern liberalism) came to exist was to serve the ideals of liberalism. The goals are the same.

[@gabriel15able]

Carl Jung and Sigmund feud .

[@Andrewclaps]

as well as clear cut christian ideas don't forget that my friend

[@josea.penagil8150]

After listening and paying close attention to Steven Pinker I would have to say and consider an appropriate quote by Bruce H.Lipton. Deism is the belief that nature and God are one and the same thing. If you study nature, you're getting insights about God. My question is? Is this a cop-out? Not to mention, leaving the part of "FAITH" out.

[@hobbit2245]

I do suppose you're talking about Classical Liberalism and not "liberalism" in the modern U.S. sense of the word?

[@lakewood425]

Examples of why the American founders were not Liberals or Democrates? "the names of the laws that are trying to be passed that will turn the country into a police state" -- The Patriot Act, and SOPA come to mind, laws which remove a person's rights, i.e. "Freedom of Speech", and of Association. The government took away many "Freedom of Association" laws back in the 1950's and 1960's.

[@kubaniski]

there's a differnce between the classical liberal ideology and the modern leftist ideology in the US that goes by the name of "liberalism" although when you examine it you find that it's a lot of things but "liberal" in the sense of "free" it is not.

[@Sportliveonline]

what is it

[@mattyarden2484]

i don't think it is distinctly human though.

[@N0rmad]

What other species can communicate at the level of abstraction and/or intention as humans? This includes being have metalinguistic awareness and awareness of the minds of others and their interactions with yours? What species has anything comparable to what we call human language?

[@RekMone]

+t0nda Please google for "prairie dogs language" and tell me whether this alters your opinion. Me thinks op might be right...

[@squamish4244]

So essentially Pinker doesn't know.

[@twoskoop]

Scientists don't usually talk in certainties. 'We have found evidence in support of'... is about as certain as it gets. If something has enough evidence, it becomes a 'Law', but even those are arguable. Thats part of the problem with climate change debate. People who aren't really scientists have no problem speaking in definite terms, "Studies show climate change is not caused by people", while scientists at best can say "we've found evidence in support of human caused climate change".

[@squamish4244]

twoskoop Yes, I am aware of that. Sometimes I wish they would take a stronger stance on global warming, as it gives the skeptics too much wiggle room to deny their way out of everything, but that's not how scientists operate. I singled Pinker out because I feel in the hotly disputed area of consciousness he is given to making statements that verge on certainties - e.g. on free will, human nature, evolutionary psychology.

[@clayman117]

"The more you learn the more you realize the search for distilled truth is a quest into infinity." -Mommy

[@JackWitaPack]

valar 4 years later. Little did you know.

[@mikeg1745]

Hello Peter, what's happening? Ummm, I'm gonna need you to go ahead come in tomorrow. So if you could be here around 9 that would be great, mmmk...

[@queuesnake704]

Ahh, language. Reminds me of how Latin, now a dead language, was more or less the language of the bourgeoisie, a language taught only to the rich to keep illiterate farmers and commoners ignorant of higher learning and therefore enslaved to their lots in life via the omission of knowledge resources. That's why Geoffrey Chaucer and English rise to such prominence with the invention of the printing press. His Canterbury Tales and the cheap, mass produced nature of books via the printing press in

[@JamieVegas]

It's called "Everybody Poops," and available at fine bookstores everywhere.

[@yellowklayman]

Can you give me some examples? And the names of the laws that are trying to be passed that will turn the country into a police state.

[@harrysonofbob]

Pearls before swine

[@skepticalJones82]

I'm not sure what he means by "left liberalism", but I have noticed that some liberals tend to hate evolutionary psychology, human nature, etc. Ideally we should accept good ideas - and ideas that are true - regardless if they come from the right or the left.

[@WeightingAtHome]

bigpink

[@ch3nre]

GENIUS hahahah

[@randominternetguy1499]

yea!

[@hyperthreaded]

Maybe some airy Harvard types commonly say "if you could pass me the salt, that would be great". The rest of us just blurts "can you pass me the salt please?" and think nothing of it.

[@pafijohn]

your comment add nothing to the conversation and has no relation to the video, so no

[@Sivels]

why don't you go tell them about it.

[@CGW129]

He has excellent diction.

[@piemonkey321]

That's merely looking at one side of the argument, the United States, first off, was founded on what we tend to call nowadays Libertarian ideals, maximum freedom where the government does not intervene, something that is Liberal AND Conservative. America is HARDLY a democracy, more of a we-pay-you-to-keep-your-mouth-shut-and-do-our-dirtyworkocracy. Capitalism? Maybe, however that's more or less subjective to how you feel as a Capitalist.

[@LeEternelleVie]

Not today!

[@kubaniski]

I think yo're right about the state and the fact that self proclaimed "liberals" here in the USA are anything but. However please be polite and logical.

[@utdfortreble]

what`?

[@YinZenYang]

Gimme the salt -_-

[@ch3nre]

My comment has nothing to do with trolling

[@GirlSocks]

We're worried about you. You need to stop this "First" thing. This isn't actually a bigthink video, behind you are your family and friends... They've prepared speeches.

[@ghrabi33]

Only if mean by "liberal" classical liberal instead of progressive or democrat.

[@Aizacc84]

Michio Kaku, No Michio v,..,v

[@MGsven]

i think you confuse classical liberals with modern "liberals", it just comes to show how language can be manipulated

[@dennisr.levesque2320]

You had me until "language is distinctly human". Just because most of us don't speak dog, dolphin, or dingbat, doesn't mean they don't have a language.