"It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer. But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Ove...
I think moralistic science is bad for morals and bad for science.
~ Steven Pinker ~
Photo by Ákos Szabó
Photo by Ian Turnell
I think moralistic science is bad for morals and bad for science.
More Steven Pinker quotes
"By exploring the political and moral colorings of discoveries about what makes us tick, we can have a more honest science and a less fearful intellect...
"Northeastern and most coastal states will vote for the candidate who is more closely aligned with international cooperation and engagement, secularism...
"Technology, ideology, and social and cultural changes periodically throw out new forms of violence for humanity to contend with.
"A...reason we are so-so scientists is that our brains were shaped for fitness, not for truth. Sometimes truth is adaptive, but sometimes it is not.
"The decline of violence isn't a steady inclined plane from an original state of maximal and universal bloodshed. Technology, ideology, and social and ...
"The unstated premise that nature is nice lies behind many of the objections to the Darwinian theory of human sexuality. Carefree sex is natural and go...
"Some people think that evolutionary psychology claims to have discovered that human nature is selfish and wicked. But they are flattering the research...
"The task of evolutionary psychology is not to weigh in on human nature, a task better left to others. It is to add the satisfying kind of insight that...
"Many textbooks point out that no animal has evolved wheels and cite the fact as an example of how evolution is often incapable of finding the optimal ...
"Many people think that the theory of the selfish gene says that “animals try to spread their genes.” That misstates the facts and it misstates the the...
"Why give a robot an order to obey orders—why aren't the original orders enough? Why command a robot not to do harm—wouldn't it be easier never to comm...
"No society can be simultaneously fair, free, and equal. If it is fair, people who work harder can accumulate more. If it is free, people will give the...
"the mind is a neural computer
"The Darwinian approach to sex is often attacked as being antifeminist, but that is just wrong. Indeed, the accusation is baffling on the face of it, e...