Language As a Window Into Human Nature Ebook, Epub

THE STUFF OF THOUGHT:: LANGUAGE AS A WINDOW INTO HUMAN NATURE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

I suppose that PInker argues throughout from a evolutionary psychological view point, but this becomes most clear in the second to last chapter and maybe it is simply because I am still very critical towards that school of thought, but to my mind the second to last chapter is the least convincing. Pinker is known for his wide-ranging explorations of human nature and its relevance to language, history, morality, politics, and everyday life. An extreme nativist holds that the language we use for thought is totally predetermined. This isn't a knee-jerk reaction from a sociologist; socio-biological explanations are generally examples of people reading their own interpretations of the social world, and how it "ought" to be, back into "history" and saying that it's natural. As such these two have been my least favourite of his books. Is it a construction of our language? He seems to think it has a lot to do with verbs. Through this lens, Pinker asks questions such as "What does the peculiar syntax of swearing tell us about ourselves? First we hear of academics that make claims that imply that nearly all words are innate to the human mind, and are inborn as part of our genetic makeup i. He argues with everyone! We hear of psychology, cultural practices, and evolution. He has two younger siblings. I assume that by 'good' he means 'effective' and in context he means 'of exposition. Not only is he a deep thinker, but he is a good writer and when you can't understand him, it's not because he writes in an obtuse way, it's just that you are literally incapable of going that deep into a concept. So, according to this logic, despite our conviction that the world consists of more than human minds, it would be impossible to determine what reality is except by consultation with other minds. There are myriad illustrations, statistics and studies that support and ease readability. In an early chapter, Pinker asks us to consider why some verbs are both content- and container-locative. I just couldn't find a focus, a significance, to all the interesting stuff. Yet, language must now take a passive back-seat to these issues, only acting to give us tiny clues to their nature. There are a multitude of lovely linguistic furnishings, the erudition of extensive research lines the bookshelves, quirky incidental knowledge is apparent in the quaint knickknacks strewn throughout, and there are even quite a few saucy paintings on the walls. The Stuff of Thought:: Language as a Window into Human Nature Writer

Metaphor turns out to be our crucial talent. From describing the way children learn sentence structure, showing by their cute mistakes how infant speech can help us trace the language of time, space and causality; to the surfacing o Stunned. Pinker is one brainy dude, so perhaps the problem is with my own intelligence. That would be dualism. It was comedian Lenny Bruce's dream to do for sexual profanity what the Protestants had done for religious blasphemy - render it harmless. Pinker weaves this paradox from a series of opposing theories. In fact it is our model of reality tout court his analysis of verbs in shaping thought is exemplary. Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts 1 We have not used OCR Optical Character Recognition , as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. What do we mean by cause? He has two younger siblings. It would be a little strange if it wasn't the case that our mind is constructed in a particular way in our thinking. You can't help but admire the breadth of Pinker's inquiry, but at the same time wonder at the point. But as I reflected on it over the next few days, my opinion radically changed. For example, we can say, 'Jared sprayed water on the roses,' and also, 'Jared sprayed the roses with water. I just have access to an audiobook version, but I wanted to cite his work properly. The great role of innuendo as social glue is examined in its full spectrum. This runs counter to Wittgenstein's belief that thought is the slave of language. Frequently, after spending a few moments to decrypt some of his more florid paragraphs, I found that the concept they contained was fairly banal. The stuff in question is language, what the subtitle describes as a 'window into human nature'. Oct 16, liz rated it it was amazing Shelves: non-fiction. Is it a construction of our mind? It's quite rewarding and verbs will be your friends forevermore People need some concept in their heads that corresponds to the words used. The book starts off to look too heavy with a long chapter on verbs. The Doors' song "Love Me Two Times" sounds strange at first, because the temporal phrase x times applies only to events, not to states, and loving someone is a state. Most popular. For example, a common-place statement such as "If you could pass the salt, that would be great" functions both as a request though formally not a request and as a means of being polite or non-offensive through not directing the audience to overt demands. It's the sort of odd things that linguists discover: patterns in how we use language, that we follow without knowing. If frames overpower rational criticism, Pinker asks, then why do Lakoff and other quasi-relativists write books rationally criticizing frames? However, many of the insights found here would no longer be considered news to anyone with a passing interest in modern psychology. If two people call you a horse, look in the mirror. It's a subject he's explored in some depth before, but here he is at his most intellectually peripatetic. He could have written about the quaint vagaries of mostly English language semantics and its implicit politics and left it at that. There are definitely some strong points to be found in these pages. But those self-induced chuckles are pretty much self-indulgent, because they fail to dam an overwhelming onslaught of logorrhea. Error rating book. This is a very interesting question and I think Pinker's writing here is quite interesting as well. For example, in the movie "Fargo," he said, a kidnapper with the hostage in the back seat, is pulled over by a police officer because of a missing license plate. The Stuff of Thought:: Language as a Window into Human Nature Reviews

A writer is someone who writes, and a stinger is something that stings. They come across as too wonky a word that is a phonaesthesia in case you were wondering and arcane to leave much of an impression. I suppose that PInker argues throughout from a evolutionary psychological view point, but this becomes most clear in the second to last chapter and maybe it is simply because I am still very critical towards that school of thought, but to my mind the second to last chapter is the least convincing. He was born in Canada and graduated from Montreal's Dawson College in He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time, and The New Repu Steven Arthur Pinker is a prominent Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author of popular science. Shelves: toolbox , classics , need-to-review. We hear of psychology, cultural practices, and evolution. Maybe it has something to do with explanatory levels. But those self- induced chuckles are pretty much self-indulgent, because they fail to dam an overwhelming onslaught of logorrhea. I very much enjoyed The Better Angels of our Natures and The Blank Slate , but the books Pinker has written about his own field of expertise linguistics , not so much. It was fascinating not just because it showed that there are families of verbs whose existence I had never suspected existed but also because I was impressed by how this type of analysis provides a plausible window on the mind. I did just complete a module in speech and language development last week, and I finished reading this book yesterday, so this heightened sensitivity to words might not last forever. Steven Pinker. Date of Birth: September 18, Apr 23, Alex rated it really liked it. Pinker is one brainy dude, so perhaps the problem is with my own intelligence. So they'll sleep with anyone to spread their seed, but not take a chance of impregnating a less-than-attractive woman? Yet the Harvard professor demonstrates a frustrating reluctance to go from A to B if there's any chance of a detour to Z. There are a few things I don't think he is fair about- and one of those things is religion Surprise! In a series of stories before, after, and even during neurosurgery, an epileptic patient, Neil; Oct 08, Lars Guthrie rated it it was ok. The Observer Health, mind and body books. I know that Pinker argues that it is easy to make a computer aware of itself, but the level of self-reflexivity in the human mind is still impressive I think. The tracks of a bird in the Why is it that 'Steve' and variations such as Stephen went from being 75th in popularity, to being so omnipresent that Stephen Pinker admits to getting some extra sales because Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs, and Stephen Jay Gould all gave the name some extra cachet? Lists with This Book. It all makes sense, when you look at it the right way. Richard M. It felt like the desire to give every example possible got in the way of making his point. Topics Health, mind and body books The Observer. First we hear of academics that make claims that imply that nearly all words are innate to the human mind, and are inborn as part of our genetic makeup i. The same word can carry quite different meanings just as regularly as different words can describe the same person, activity, or thing. Because in the first example — we are describing an activity that changes the state of the wagon … from empty to full. Seventeen minutes later, a second plane crashed into the South Tower, incinerating more still, and within an hour an a half, both buildings were reduced to heaps of toxic rubble. The book starts off to look too heavy with a long chapter on verbs. Oct 20, KC rated it liked it. This is why I initially had a bad impression of the book: the linguistics got in the way of the psychology. Interests - personal, material, psychological, familial, religious, reputational - are a dominant force in any attempt to connect words and things. Members save with free shipping everyday! Nov 18, Justin rated it really liked it. In other words, through art.

The Stuff of Thought:: Language as a Window into Human Nature Read Online

Language; Its Nature, Development and Origin. Yet the Harvard professor demonstrates a frustrating reluctance to go from A to B if there's any chance of a detour to Z. The book starts off to look too heavy with a long chapter on verbs. So, according to this logic, despite our conviction that the world consists of more than human minds, it would be impossible to determine what reality is except by consultation with other minds. Two verbs! Community Reviews. This book presented some interesting ideas on how language is shaped by the way we think, and how it enables us to think in new ways, but ultimately i found it to be too academic, like attending a long lecture by a Harvard professor, which the author is. Linguistic factoids and etymological myth-bustings abound. These are interesting but not hotly controversial arguments, and neither provides the kind of overarching strength that would provide the book with a firm thematic backbone. When I finished this book I was disappointed. In the end, too much of this book seems to reach for something larger, but end up as merely 'semantics' fully in the negative connotation of the word. He knows that only words define other words, that these definitions slip and slide continuously in the way they are used with each other, and that their effects on human activities are consequently uncertain in many critical situations. This gorgeously illustrated volume of poetry — sprinkled with facts and fun things to do Pinker argues that language provides a window into human nature, and that "analyzing language can reveal what people are thinking and feeling. To be fair, Pinker does include many examples of how such rules can be relevant to the lives of normal people, but over the course of the book I wasn't convinced that most of the topics were adding anything significant to my understanding of people's relationship with language. Dec 24, Cheryl rated it liked it. I a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian consume? His seemingly favorite topic in this chapter was content locatives. By any standard, what happened in that small window of time changed the world. It felt like the desire to give every example possible got in the way of making his point. Nov 02, Joshua Nomen-Mutatio rated it it was amazing Shelves: cognitive-science-and-or-psychology , cultural-and-or-political , evolutionary-theory , linguistics. Pinker was named one of Time Magazine's most influential people in the world in and one of Prospect and Foreign Policy's top public intellectuals in Kant rejected both of these views and sought a compromise. Metaphors structure even our most advanced ideas: heat works like fluid, atoms like solar systems, genes like code, evolution like design. I a vegetarian e A loquacious look at language. Categories : non-fiction books Books about cognition Linguistics books Cognitive science literature Works by Steven Pinker English-language books. You have to search for clues wherever you can find them. The other way one can refer to sex is somewhat less polite. Steven Pinker is as close to a famous linguist as we have today Noam Chomsky doesn't count, because he's famous for his politics, not his linguistics. And he mostly wins, which makes him a genius in the field of linguistics AND a world class smartass, which makes me want to smack him over the head with his page work. Furthermore, Pinker writes with a playfulness towards language that is fun in short bursts, but can obscure his point and be exhausting in the long haul. The chapter that many readers will find most interesting covers swearing. Is the agonist real? I am a big fan of Steven Pinker. We accept the possibility of an ontological faux pas with reasonably good grace. Considering the book's theme of "language as a window into human nature", this is where I actually think Pinker provides a winder and provides some rather interesting points to ponder. Not since The Astonishing Hypothesis, in which Francis Crick dismantled the longstanding myth of Cartesian Dualism, has a single work managed to elucidate such a mysterious and controversial realm, wedged as it is between cognitive science, philosophy of mind, neurology and evolutionary psychology. Pinker likes to be very precise in his semiotic descriptions and examples. Which is all fairly abstract stuff, and Pinker does a good job of finding concrete examples to keep our interest. So I loved SP's book "The Language Instinct" even though a lot of it was old news to me, since I was fresh off of my linguistics course , and I was super-stoked for this one. He put forward that we had to have already existing structures in our minds that allowed us to frame the world and thereby understand it — these already existing structures — a priori categories he calls them — are the lenses we use to bring the world into focus. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/6452aa65-cd3b-4676-9ae0-ac8581118851/vietnam-wars-1945-1990-1st-edition-178.pdf https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/69b009d4-1c42-4d2b-86eb-f8e4652e02ae/sackett-the-sacketts-a-novel-252.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9585457/UploadedFiles/27CAC9C2-7403-6BE0-A747-AC1F7263F4CD.pdf https://cdn.starwebserver.se/shops/robertperssonvj/files/construction-project-administration-10th-edition-9.pdf