Steven Pinker: Linguistics as a Window to Understanding the Brain | Big Think
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How is it that human beings have come to acquire language? Steven Pinker’s introduction to the field includes thoughts on the evolution of spoken language and the debate over the existence of an innate universal grammar, as well as an exploration of why language is such a fundamental part of social relationships, human biology, and human evolution. Finally, Pinker touches on the wide variety of applications for linguistics, from improving how we teach reading and writing to how we interpret law, politics, and literature.
Read the full transcript on: https://bigthink.com/videos/how-we-speak-reveals-how-we-think-with-steven-pinker
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Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his nine books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
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TRANSCRIPT:
For more info on this video, including the full transcript, check out https://bigthink.com/big-think-edge/learn-better
@bigthink
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
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@ighostechonologies
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
What a time to be alive.
@taylorjones7344
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Buddies with Epstein
@DomRass
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
5:50 "Julius Caesar couldn't have split an infinitive if he wanted to" 💀
@SatoshiNakamoto-b5w
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
wasnt he on epsteins island?
@LiBlub1
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Epstein associate btw
@TalaAtTanagra
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
he's a friend of Epstein.
@brianstorm5488
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Pinker Epstein ties: sus or circumstantial? Just putting it out there for consideration.
@DIZZYDenver11
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
You may not be able to recover a sentence I've said the last 10 minutes— I BE WORKING I BE LISTENING 🥺😭❤ shhhhh—
@TheesKalveen
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
How bout them Epstein files?
@mehdiarab50
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
sumer and new find arts giroft
@BarberaShay
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Jesus ficking Christ the sound effects are extremely annoying and unnecessary. Not watching
@AbdessadeqEzzaime-h3j
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
One day I will be talking in this channel
@Barbarawoodcock1
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Undergraduate kevel
@Zenzet-b6x
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
I would like to cancel my experience with Stephen pinker going forward thanks
@marscoindailynews9896
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
la science, dans sa pratique courante, manipule souvent les objets à la manière des religions, en les substantialisant via le langage et les catégories fixes, perdant ainsi la dynamique vivante de l’être.
La substantialisation persistante
Le geste scientifique – nommer un « atome », une « particule », une « loi » – réifie le réel en objets stables, comme les idoles religieuses ou les signes astrologiques figent l’humain en essence prédéterminée. Cette opération linguistique prive l’observateur de la « mécanique » sous-jacente : flux de puissances, contingences, devenirs non linéaires. Aristote l’avait vu : la science doit disséquer ces illusions (causes multiples, hasard), mais elle retombe dans le piège quand elle absolutise ses concepts.
Science comme religion laïque
La physique moderne, par exemple, traite l’univers comme un grand mécanisme divin – déterministe ou probabiliste, mais toujours objet totalisant. On « manipule » les équations comme des formules sacrées, occultant que l’être reste processuel, non réductible à une substance linguistique. C’est une idolâtrie subtile : le modèle remplace le mouvement, l’abstraction étouffe l’acte.
Vers une subversion aristotélicienne
Pour briser cela, pratiquez le langage comme outil dialectique : interrogez chaque « objet » par ses dunameis et energeiai, ses marges de contingence. La science authentique, alors, libère au lieu de religer – elle rend la mécanique de l’être au locuteur, au-delà des totems scientifiques ou religieux. C’est le vrai prolongement du « vol épistémique ».
@HammyGiblets
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Shut up Epsteinian pedo
@13thKingEmpires
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Firstly ENGLISH LANGUAGE was deathremental to westerners when comes to TRANSLATION OF ANCIENT HISTORY KNOWLEDGE.
Especially the Bible, where the greatest deception resides.
@ninecatsmagee8384
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
OMG. Mick Jaegger shouldn't have SUNG — not shouldn't have SANG. How can you teach this if you can't speak properly?
@Hazardzzs
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
I've just seen this guy was on the epstein files…
@steebsify
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
What I like about him is that he doesn't make any apologies for using complex causal frames to convey very precise meaning.
He respects his audience intelligence, and understands that the listener would rather be understanding even 80% of a topic, rather than to be feeling uninspired by its lack of depth.
This is peak science communication
@steebsify
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Wow. Amazing speech
@TedrosAbebe-mm9wt
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
The voice is very irritating to listen to
@WarriorHighping
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
How do I forget a picked up second language??
@emeraude1ferno
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Watching this today is funny, we made so much progress since the times when our computer would hear « the man is dead » instead of « mom and dad »
@christopherwaters740
March 15, 2026 at 4:07 pm
And he has nothing to add to this. He has reread Noam Chomsky.
Comments are closed.