Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is an influential and celebrated American scientist, linguist, and cognitive psychologist. Since beginning his prolific career as a Harvard professor in 1979, he has focused on the evolution of language and cognition and how they can inform our understanding of human nature. He is a prolific writer and author, having written nine books on topics such as language, the mind, and human nature.

Pinker's most influential work to date is The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, published in 2011, which has won numerous awards, including the National Academy of Sciences Prize for Life Sciences. In The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker examines the history of violence and suggests why it has declined in recent centuries. His thesis is that we are living in the most peaceful era in our species’ history, and argues that peace in the 21st century can be attributed to several powerful forces, including education, democracy, science, trade, and cosmopolitanism. Ultimately, Pinker argues that “tolerance and reason” are to thank for the generally decreasing levels of violence over the past few centuries.

In 2018, Pinker released his book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, which was nominated for a National Book Award. In this work, Pinker argues that the ideals of the 18th-century Enlightenment – including individual rights, science, and reason – have resulted in unparalleled advances in human wellbeing. In contrast to the pessimistic narratives dominant in the news media, Pinker contends that the present is, in fact, the best time in history to be alive. He uses quantitative data from a variety of social indicators, including health and education, to demonstrate how our lives have improved over the past few centuries.

Pinker's work is widely praised for its wide-ranging scholarship, accessible writing style, and ability to engage popular culture. In 2004, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his best-selling book, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, which was turned into a documentary film in 2007. He has also received numerous awards and recognitions, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Psychological Association's Lifetime Contributions Award, the Henry Murray Award, and the William James Prize.

In addition to writing and teaching, Pinker is also involved in activism. Most recently, he has become a vocal opponent of censorship, particularly in the realms of Twitter and YouTube, arguing that increased censorship is a threat to free and open dialogue. He is also a strong advocate for free-speech at universities, participating in and leading numerous debates, panels, and events dedicated to the issue. His involvement in political and social discourse has also led to him to become one of the most cited writers on the internet.

Overall, Steven Pinker is one of the most renowned authors of our time; his work has been highly praised for its wide-ranging scholarship and accessible writing style, influencing many prominent academics and societal thinkers. His contributions to the fields of language, the mind, and human nature have been invaluable, and through his influential academic works, he has pushed us to think differently about the world we live in.