Understanding Human Nature with Steven Pinker - Conversations with History

source: University of California Television (UCTV)    2014年4月1日
(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv) Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Harvard’s Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, for a discussion of his intellectual journey. Pinker discusses the origins and evolution of his thinking on human nature. Topics include: growing up in Montreal in a Jewish family, the impact of the 1960s, his education, and the trajectory of his research interests. He explains his early work in linguistics and how he came to write his recent work, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. In the conversation, Pinker describes the importance of interdisciplinary research and analyzes creativity. He concludes with a discussion of how science can contribute to the humanities and offers advice to students on how to prepare for the future. Recorded on 02/04/2014. Series: "Conversations with History" [4/2014] [Humanities] [Show ID: 27968]

Steven Pinker on Violence

source: Harvard University    2016年9月6日
Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology discussing his book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined.
Moderator
Homi Bhabha
Director of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
Questioners
Stanley Hoffmann
Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor, Harvard University
Amy Hollywood
Elizabeth H. Monrad Professor of Christian Studies, Harvard Divinity School
James Kloppenberg
Charles Warren Professor of American History, Harvard University
Charles Maier
Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Harvard University
Michael Sandel
Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, Harvard University
Elaine Scarry
Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value, Harvard University

Steven Pinker: The Better Angels of Our Nature

source: Yale University     2014年1月15日
Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He delivers the the inaugural Franke Program in Science and the Humanities Lecture entitled, "The Better Angels of Our Nature".

Steven Pinker - How The Mind Works (10/15/97 at MIT)

source: TheEthanwashere  2012年8月4日
Dr. Pinker talked about his new book How the Mind Works. He examined two different approaches to studying the mind and offered examples from everyday life to illustrate his ideas. Following his prepared remarks, Dr. Pinker took questions from the audience.

Authors@Google: Steven Pinker

source: Talks at Google  2011年11月01日
The author of The New York Times bestseller The Stuff of Thought offers a controversial history of violence.

Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence. For most of history, war, slavery, infanticide, child abuse, assassinations, pogroms, gruesome punishments, deadly quarrels, and genocide were ordinary features of life. But today, Pinker shows (with the help of more than a hundred graphs and maps) all these forms of violence have dwindled and are widely condemned.

Exploding fatalist myths about humankind's inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious and provocative book is sure to be hotly debated in living rooms and the Pentagon alike, and will challenge and change the way we think about our society.

Steven Pinker - The Stuff of Thought: Language as a window into human na...

source: The RSA 2010年02月04日
For Steven Pinker, the brilliance of the mind lies in the way it uses just two processes to turn the finite building blocks of our language into infinite meanings. The first is metaphor: we take a concrete idea and use it as a stand-in for abstract thoughts. The second is combination: we combine ideas according to rules, like the syntactic rules of language, to create new thoughts out of old ones.
Note - This video contains strong language.

Steven Pinker: Language and Consciousness, Part 1 Complete: Thinking Al...

source: ThinkingAllowedTV   2012年10月8日
http://www.thinkingallowed.com/2spink...
This is Part 1 of a four part, two-hour Thinking Allowed DVD. Are our thoughts shaped by the language we use?

Steven Pinker: Linguistics as a Window to Understanding the Brain

source: bigthink
Steven Pinker - Psychologist, Cognitive Scientist, and Linguist at Harvard University

How did humans acquire language? In this lecture, best-selling author Steven Pinker introduces you to linguistics, the evolution of spoken language, and the debate over the existence of an innate universal grammar. He also explores why language is such a fundamental part of social relationships, human biology, and human evolution. Finally, Pinker touches on the wide variety of applications for linguistics, from improving how we teach reading and writing to how we interpret law, politics, and literature.

The Floating University
Originally released September, 2011.
# relevant link:
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/phf1964-phf1964/article?mid=1117&prev=1118&next=1116&l=d&fid=1