People do not think in English or Chinese or Apache; they think in a language of thought. This … - Steven Pinker

Same topic Authors

Quote of the day

Virtue is the highest reward. Virtue truly goes before all things. Liberty, safety, life, property, parents, country, and children are protected and preserved. Virtue has all things in herself; he who has virtue has all things that are good attending him. [Lat. , Virtus praemium est optimum. Virtus omnibus rebus anteit profecto. Libertas, salus, vita, res, parentes, Patria et prognati tutantur, servantur; Virtus omnia in se habet; omnia assunt bona, quem penes est vertus. ]

Steven Pinker

People do not think in English or Chinese or Apache; they think in a language of thought. This language of thought probably looks a bit like all these languagesBut compared with any given language, mentalese must be richer in some ways and simpler in others.

Chinese, Compared, English, People, Thinking

Same Author Quotes

All our behaviours are a result of neurophysiological activity in the brain. There is no reason to believe there is any magic going on.

Activity, Believe, Magic, Neurophysiological, Psychology, Reason

Being smarter gives you a tailwind throughout life. People who are more intelligent earn more, live longer, get divorced less, are less likely to get addicted to alcohol and tobacco, and their children live longer.

Alcohol, Children, Intelligent, Live, People

I would argue that nothing gives life more purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift.

Fragile, Giving, Life, Purpose, Realization

When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power to shock. To acknowledge human nature, many think, is to endorse racism, sexism, war, greed, genocide, nihilism, reactionary politics, and neglect of children and the disadvantaged. Any claim that the mind has an innate organization strikes people not as a hypothesis that might be incorrect but as a thought it is immoral to think.

Behavior, Children, Human, Mind, Thinking, War

In many Muslim countries, witchcraft is not only on the books as a crime, but is commonly prosecuted. In 2009, for example, Saudi Arabia convicted a man for carrying a phone booklet with characters in an alphabet from his native Eritrea, which the police interpreted as occult symbols. He was lashed three hundred times and imprisoned for more than three years.

Book, Carrying, Character, Country, Crime, Eritrea