Steven Pinker - Psychology and Learning
Steven Pinker (1954- )
Canadian psychologist (pictured right).
Professor at Harvard University and best-selling author.
His most famous book
is…
The Blank Slate (2002) – see point 3 below.
What does he teach us about psychology and learning?
1. Inherited intelligence
Pinker’s first best-seller was The Language Instinct (1994).
This popularized the belief of another famous psychologist, Noam Chomsky (1928- ), pictured
right, that heredity (from your genes) plays a significant role in learning
language.
Heredity limits how much influence parents and teachers can have on their children and
students.
2. Evolution makes minds
Pinker is an evolutionary psychologist who believes that our mind has developed to ensure our survival (as
Richard Dawkins , pictured right,
also argued in his book, The Selfish Gene).
But we can't be purely selfish because we depend on others.
So we must:
- promote people's equal rights (e.g. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness).
But such equality doesn’t mean that people end up the same, because of differences in ability
and effort.
3. We are more than our experiences
In his book, The Blank State (2002), Pinker rejects the idea of the philosopher, John Locke, pictured right, that our mind is
like a blank page that is developed solely by
experience and learning.
The mind, says Pinker, is also influenced by evolution and your
genes (see point 2).
4. The brain is a computer
In another book, How the Mind Works (1997), Pinker likens the mind to a
computer that deduces the implications of facts received from our:
- senses (particularly sight).
- understanding of how the world works.
To solve specific problems, the mind uses:
- different sets of rules (or algorithms).
- specialized parts of the brain .
Key quote on
learning
It's not all in the genes.
Key quote on
politics
Commitment to political equality is not an empirical claim that people are clones.
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