Category Archives: Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, post 7

Posted on Friday 5 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Why Violence Has Declined” (Viking, Oct. 2011, xxvii + 802pp, including 106pp of notes, references, and index.) Summary: Chapter 9 concerns four ways in which humanity’s “better angels” turn people away from violence and toward cooperation and altruism. These … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, post 6

Posted on Thursday 4 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Why Violence Has Declined” (Viking, Oct. 2011, xxvii + 802pp, including 106pp of notes, references, and index.)   Summary: Chapter 8 concerns five forces that drive violence: Predation, Dominance, Revenge, Sadism, and Ideology. Humans are not innately aggressive, except … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, post 5

Posted on Wednesday 3 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Why Violence Has Declined” (Viking, Oct. 2011, xxvii + 802pp, including 106pp of notes, references, and index.) Today, detailed notes on Chapter 6, “The New Peace”, and Chapter 7, “The Rights Revolutions”. I’ll summarize and comment on these posts … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, post 4

Posted on Tuesday 2 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Why Violence Has Declined” (Viking, Oct. 2011, xxvii + 802pp, including 106pp of notes, references, and index.) Here, a full eight years after I began, I’ll finish posting my outline and notes on Steven Pinker’s 2011 book. This is … Continue reading →

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How to Fix the Budget; MAGA; Steven Pinker

Posted on Friday 23 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Paul Krugman’s constructive suggestions for fixing the budget; While Trump’s allegiances lie with lower taxes for the rich and cuts to the social safety net for the poor; How MAGA is about bimbos, like Kristi Noem and Sarah Palin, who … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 10

Posted on Friday 2 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Finally: the last topic chapter, about The Arts, and then the final chapter. Earlier posts about this book: post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post 5, post 6, post 7, post 8, post 9. – – – –Ch20, … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 9

Posted on Thursday 1 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

This time: Children. The old nature vs. nurture debate is too simplistic and binary. Given implications of our innate human nature, the (by now unsurprising) takeaway here is that parents have far less influence on their children than people have … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 8

Posted on Wednesday 31 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

This time: Gender. Are there innate differences between the sexes, or not? What does denial of the Blank Slate say about gender policies? And about rape. Earlier posts about this book: post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 7

Posted on Tuesday 30 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Today: Violence. Are humans inherently violent? Is war inevitable? Or is violence learned behavior? This chapter, of course, anticipates Pinker’s later book, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, which documents how violence has *declined* throughout human history, though that’s a … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: THE BLANK SLATE, post 6

Posted on Monday 29 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

The final section of the book is about various “Hot Button” topics: politics, violence, gender, children, and the arts. These chapters show how the doctrines of the blank slate, the noble savage, and the ghost in the machine have been … Continue reading →

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