The great appeal of the doctrine that the mind is a blank slate is the simple mathematical fact that zero equals zero.
Steven PinkerThe 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 only science can provide: to connect what we know about human nature with the rest of our knowledge of how the world works, and to explain the largest number of facts with the smallest number of assumptions.
Steven PinkerLanguage is a window into human nature, but it is also a fistula, an open wound through which we're exposed to an infectious world.
Steven PinkerAs every student in Philosophy 101 learns, nothing can force me to believe that anyone except me is conscious. This power to deny that other people have feelings is not just an academic exercise but an all-too-common vice, as we see in the long history of human cruelty.
Steven Pinker