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The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
by Steven Pinker
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780670063277 |
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Powells.com Staff Pick
With The Stuff of Thought, linguist Steven Pinker returns to the themes of language and human nature to examine how words express the workings of our minds. Dealing with many aspects of human cognitive and social evolution, Pinker demonstrates his complex ideas with real-world examples, making for mind-stretching yet accessible reading.
Recommended by Chandler, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Every time we swear, we reveal something about human emotions. When we use an innuendo to convey a bribe, threat, or sexual come-on (rather than just blurting it out), we disclose something about human relationships. Our use of prepositions and tenses tap into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and our nouns and verbs tap into mental models of matter and causation. Even the names we give our babies, as they change from decade to decade, have important things to day about our relations to our children and to society. By looking closely at our everyday speech — our conversations, our jokes, our legal disputes — Pinker paints a vivid picture of the thoughts and emotions that populate our mental lives.
Pinker takes on both scientific questions — like whether language affects thought, and which of our concepts are innate — and questions from the headlines and everyday life. Why does the government care so much about dirty words? How do lobbyists bribe politicians? Why do romantic comedies get such mileage out of the ambiguities of dating? Why do so many courtroom dramas hinge on disagreements about who really caused a person's death? Why have the last two American presidents gotten into trouble by the semantic niceties of their words? And why is bulk email called spam?
The Stuff of Thought marries the two topics of Pinker's earlier bestsellers: language (The Language Instinct, Words and Rules) and human nature (How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate). It presents entirely new material, while written in the style that made those books famous: lucid explanations of deep and powerful ideas, presented with irreverent wit, elegant style, and a deft use of examples from popular culture and everyday life.
Review:
"'Bestselling Harvard psychology professor Pinker (The Blank Slate) investigates what the words we use tell us about the way we think. Language, he concludes, reflects our brain structure, which itself is innate. Similarly, the way we talk about things is rooted in, but not identical to, physical reality: human beings take 'the analogue flow of sensation the world presents to them' and 'package their experience into objects and events.' Examining how we do this, the author summarizes and rejects such linguistic theories as 'extreme nativism' and 'radical pragmatism' as he tosses around terms like 'content-locative' and 'semantic reconstrual' that may seem daunting to general readers. But Pinker, a masterful popularizer, illuminates this specialized material with homely illustrations. The difference between drinking from a glass of beer and drinking a glass of beer, for example, shows that 'the mind has the power to frame a single situation in very different ways.' Separate chapters explore concepts of causality, naming, swearing and politeness as the tools with which we organize the flow of raw information. Metaphor in particular, he asserts, helps us 'entertain new ideas and new ways of managing our affairs.' His vivid prose and down-to-earth attitude will once again attract an enthusiastic audience outside academia. (Sept.)' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"Language comes so naturally to us that it's easy to believe there's some sort of intrinsic logic connecting the thing and its name, the signifier and the signified. In one of Plato's dialogues, a character named Cratylus argues that 'a power more than human gave things their first names.' But Cratylus was wrong. Human language is an emanation of the human mind. A thing doesn't care..." Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review)
Review:
"Pinker is a star, and the world of science is lucky to have him." Richard Dawkins
Review:
"[F]ull of Pinker's delightfully wry sense of humor which made my wife wonder why I kept laughing as I read a serious book on language and mind." Abbas Raza, 3 Quark Daily
Review:
"The Stuff Of Thought is an excellent book, and while it may not be as groundbreaking and controversial as some of his earlier works, it is easily his most accessible and fun book to read." Dan Schneider, Monsters and Critics
Review:
"A fascinating look at how language provides a window into the deepest functioning of the human brain." Josie Glausiusz, Wired
Review:
"[A] stimulating volume....From politics to poetry, children's wonderful malapropisms to slang, Pinker's fluency in the nuances of words and syntax serves as proof of his faith in language as 'a window into human nature.'" Booklist
Review:
"A book on semantics may not sound especially enticing, but with Pinker as your guide, pondering what the meaning of 'is' is can be mesmerizing." Details
Synopsis:
New York Times bestselling author Pinker marries two of the subjects he knows best: language and human nature. The result is a fascinating look at how words explain human nature.
Synopsis:
New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker possesses that rare combination of scientific aptitude and verbal eloquence that enables him to provide lucid explanations of deep and powerful ideas. His previous books-including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Blank Slate-have catapulted him into the limelight as one of today's most important and popular science writers. Now, in The Stuff of Thought, Pinker marries two of the subjects he knows best: language and human nature. The result is a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. What does swearing reveal about our emotions? Why does innuendo disclose something about relationships? Pinker reveals how our use of prepositions and tenses taps into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and how our nouns and verbs speak to our notions of matter. Even the names we give our babies have important things to say about our relations to our children and to society. With his signature wit and style, Pinker takes on scientific questions like whether language affects thought, as well as forays into everyday life-why is bulk e-mail called spam and how do romantic comedies get such mileage out of the ambiguities of dating? The Stuff of Thought is a brilliantly crafted and highly readable work that will appeal to fans of readers of everything from The Selfish Gene and Blink to Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
About the Author
Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor of psychology at Harvard University. In 2006, Time named him one of the 100 most important people in the world. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as The New York Times, Time, and Slate, and is the author of six books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules, and The Blank Slate.
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
-
PETER TEIMAN CLARK, November 19, 2007 (view all comments by PETER TEIMAN CLARK)
Hi,PETER TEIMAN CLARK here,
A user-friendly glimpse into the epistemology of cognitive sciences.
Thanks,
PETER TEIMAN CLARK
Sweden
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patswee2006, November 15, 2007 (view all comments by patswee2006)
Once you read this book, you will never again (I hope!) dismiss an opponent's argument as "mere semantics." Not only does Pinker prove that shades of meaning among words are important (hardly a revolutionary insight), but he also shows how the meanings attached to certain words reveal structures in the brain that have nothing to do with language or the words we use--and this IS revolutionary! If you've ever wondered how human beings managed to think for nearly 3 million years before language was invented, this book will make that clear.
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DOCTOR PETER TEIMAN FRANKLIN, September 26, 2007 (view all comments by DOCTOR PETER TEIMAN FRANKLIN)
DOCTOR PETER TEIMAN FRANKLIN HERE,
The author well describes the importance of cognitive epistemology.
DOCTOR PETER TEIMAN FRANKLIN
FRANCE
View all 3 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780670063277
- Subtitle:
- Language as a Window Into Human Nature
- Author:
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Viking Books
- Subject:
- Social Psychology
- Subject:
- Linguistics
- Subject:
- Philosophy & Social Aspects
- Subject:
- Personality
- Subject:
- Philosophy
- Subject:
- Thought and thinking
- Publication Date:
- September 2007
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 512
- Dimensions:
- 9.26x6.36x1.59 in. 1.63 lbs.
