Steven Pinker
Who was Steven Pinker?
Canadian-American cognitive scientist and linguist known for his research on language acquisition and books like The Better Angels of Our Nature.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Steven Pinker (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Steven Arthur Pinker was born on September 18, 1954, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He went to Wagar High School and Dawson College before getting his undergraduate degree at McGill University. He completed his doctoral studies at Harvard University, where he later returned as a faculty member. Pinker became a leading figure in cognitive science, focusing on visual cognition, developmental linguistics, and language acquisition.
As a cognitive psychologist and psycholinguist, Pinker is known for supporting evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. His academic career included roles at top institutions, eventually becoming the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. His research explored how children learn language, suggesting with collaborator Alan Prince that children use default grammatical rules but learn irregular forms through individual exposure and memorization.
Pinker became widely known through his popular science writing, authoring nine books for general audiences that connected academic research with public understanding. His early works, like The Language Instinct (1994) and How the Mind Works (1997), argued that language is an innate human trait shaped by natural selection. The Blank Slate (2002) challenged the idea that human nature can be completely shaped by environment, while The Stuff of Thought (2007) examined the link between language and human thinking.
Later in his career, Pinker looked at bigger questions about human progress and rationality. The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) used extensive data to show a decline in violence throughout human history, identifying trends and historical forces behind this decrease. Enlightenment Now (2018) continued this positive outlook, arguing that reason, science, and humanist values have improved the human condition. His latest book, Rationality (2021), discusses the nature and importance of rational thinking today.
Throughout his career, Pinker has received many awards including the APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology (1984), the Humanist of the Year award (2006), and the Richard Dawkins Award (2013). Time magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2004, and he has appeared multiple times on Foreign Policy's list of Top 100 Global Thinkers. He has been married three times, to psychologist Nancy Etcoff, computer scientist Ilavenil Subbiah, and philosopher Rebecca Goldstein.
Before Fame
Growing up in Montreal in the 1960s and 1970s, Pinker was part of a time of big changes in cognitive science. The field was shifting from behaviorism to viewing the mind as an information processor. After his undergraduate studies at McGill University, he went to Harvard University for graduate studies. This was when the cognitive revolution was in full swing, and researchers were using computational models to understand human language and thought.
Pinker became well-known for his doctoral research on language acquisition during a period when the field was dealing with Noam Chomsky's ideas about innate grammar. His early work on how children learn irregular verbs offered key evidence for rule-based models of language processing, showing he could effectively connect theoretical linguistics with experimental psychology.
Key Achievements
- Developed influential theories of language acquisition with Alan Prince, particularly regarding children's acquisition of irregular verb forms
- Authored The Language Instinct, which became a landmark popular science book explaining the innate basis of human language
- Published The Better Angels of Our Nature, a comprehensive analysis demonstrating the historical decline of violence
- Received the Richard Dawkins Award for contributions to public understanding of science and rational thinking
- Named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People and multiple appearances on Foreign Policy's Top Global Thinkers list
Did You Know?
- 01.He was once a long-haired student radical at Harvard in the 1970s and has acknowledged his transformation from leftist activist to moderate centrist
- 02.Pinker appeared as himself in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything about Stephen Hawking
- 03.He maintains a collection of common usage errors and has served as chair of the American Heritage Dictionary usage panel
- 04.His book The Better Angels of Our Nature contains over 100 graphs and charts documenting historical trends in violence
Family & Personal Life
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology | 1984 | — |
| Boyd McCandless Award | 1986 | — |
| Troland Research Awards | 1993 | — |
| Emperor Has No Clothes Award | 2004 | — |
| Walter P. Kistler Book Award | 2005 | — |
| Humanist of the Year | 2006 | — |
| Richard Dawkins Award | 2013 | — |
| William James Fellow Award | 2016 | — |
| Emperor Has No Clothes Award | 2017 | — |
| Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science | 2018 | — |
| Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society | — | — |
| Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry | — | — |
| Kistler Prize | — | — |
| honorary doctor of the University of Tromso | — | — |