Anyone who knows me knows I write about this exact subject whenever I get the chance. Pinker got me with that if nothing else--and he should get you, too.
Anyway, Pinker is an enormously interesting fellow. In many ways I think he's the new Stephen Jay Gould, synthesizing and popularizing complex scientific ideas. Gould would probably be horrified at the comparison, since he spent much of his intellectual life trying to obscure or even dismiss concepts that Pinker fearlessly examines, and yet the comparison otherwise seems right on. The man has a knack for exploring and explaining ideas.
An interesting interview with Pinker was recently published by the "Third Culture" intellectuals over at Edge.org. The quote I used above comes from that interview. To read the rest of it, simply click here.
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