On Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:48:34 -0800, Joan Warmbold wrote: >I look forward to reviewing this article but if it is any thing like his >preface to Harris's book, The Nurture Assumption, it will contain a >significant number of disputable contentions. Until very recently, I knew >little about Pinker except that he's a renown evolutionary psychologist. [snip]
I must admit to being amused when people refer to Pinker as an evolutionary psychologist. My own familiarity with Pinker's research began in the early 1980s when he was doing research on visual cognition is Stephen Kosslyn (Pinker did his dissertation under Kosslyn). I didn't find his psycholignuistic work very interesting and have problems with his nativist position. For one overview of his career, here is a summary he apparently provided to the Linguist List:, see: http://linguistlist.org/studentportal/linguists/pinker.cfm He also has a entry on Wikipedia, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker I haven't followed Pinker's writing in the past decade or so but I'll take it on faith when people say he has become an evolutionary psychologist. I also admit to some amusement about some Canadian psychologists' harsh treatment of Pinker and wonder if it's because he's a Quebecois. ;-) -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
