Cognitive psychologist and linguist Prof Steven Pinker of Harvard University is no stranger to intellectual controversy. Since 1994, a series of bestselling books, including The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate and The Better Angels of Our Nature, have unleashed a torrent of criticism. Pinker’s determination to apply scientific thinking to politics, society and culture has left some accusing him of scientism – an overweening faith in the power of science in every sphere. His latest book, Enlightenment Now, is a vigorous defence of Enlightenment progress against the prophets of doom.
But this upbeat story of human achievement over the last few hundred years is a long way from his beginnings as a researcher into visual cognition and the development of language in children. Guest host Richard Lea asked Pinker to walk him through the journey from expert on the representation of 3D space in mental images to campaigning public intellectual.
Source : theguardian
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