Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: Selected Articles PDF

Rating: Author: Steven Pinker ISBN : Product Detai New from Format: PDF

Download PRETITLE Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: Selected Articles POSTTITLE from mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link Language, Cognition, and Human Nature collects together for the first time much of Steven Pinker's most influential scholarly work on language and cognition. Pinker's seminal research explores the workings of language and its connections to cognition, perception, social relationships, child development, human evolution, and theories of human nature.
This eclectic collection spans Pinker's thirty-year career, exploring his favorite themes in greater depth and scientific detail. It includes thirteen of Pinker's classic articles, ranging over topics such as language development in children, mental imagery, the recognition of shapes, the computational architecture of the mind, the meaning and uses of verbs, the evolution of language and cognition, the nature-nurture debate, and the logic of innuendo and euphemism. Each outlines a major theory or takes up an argument with another prominent scholar, such as Stephen Jay Gould, Noam Chomsky, or Richard Dawkins. Featuring a new introduction by Pinker that discusses his books and scholarly work, this collection reflects essential contributions to cognitive science by one of our leading thinkers and public intellectuals.Direct download links available for PRETITLE Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: Selected Articles [Kindle Edition] POSTTITLE

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• File Size: 1527 KB
• Print Length: 385 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0199328749
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 27, 2013)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00ET38FS8
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray:
  Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,098 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: Selected Articles PDF

Steven gives some very honest barbs about the peer review process here, as well as some wonderful reasons for more authors to "go mass" as well as contribute to turbocharged sites like edge dot org instead of, or in addition to journals.

The articles dusted off here (inline citations vary between 1960 and 1980, with some 90's) are an eclectic collection from all of Steve's favorite and most popular topics, including developmental, AI, tons of Chomsky/grammar controversies argued deftly from both sides, etc. There's even a "last attempt" reprise of words and rules utilizing irregular verbs. I guess I'm one of the only people on the planet that actually enjoyed that book!

DO READ the generous "look inside" feature here on Amazon, as these articles are by Pinker, with Pinker, and liked by Steve, not all written only by him (some are co written or "argued" with other authors), and both scholars and smart lay folk should enjoy seeing some of his "inside" inspiration and ideas as they took shape over many years. The tone is a "little" more clinical and scholarly than REALLY fun books like How the Mind Works, with its offbeat humor, magnificent side stats everywhere, and startling metaphors.

Frankly, I find a lot more technical linguistic material here than some of his other popular books. I write compilers and some of the sections on grammar and parsing, as well as mathematical linguistics, were definitely not "dumbed down" for a mass audience, meaning you also need to like this material and have some patience with the "chomsky tree" level of detail. Even so, Steve continually brings this back to the bigger pictures of learning, mind, cognition, AI, etc. which are where much of his brilliant as well as fun insights ring truest.

This review is addressed mainly at general scientific interest readers who liked Stephen Pinker's popular bestsellers like The Blank Slate, The Stuff of Thought and The Better Angels of Our Nature. This book of selected articles covers much of the same ideas. For scientific journal articles the articles are accessible, clear and well-written; but no one would mistake them for non-specialist writing. They take considerably more effort to read than the books, and are much less pleasant. While in return you get some additional scientific precision, that is more than offset by the fact that the articles are dated and reflect only Pinker's work rather than a synthesis of the state of research in the area.

Unlike a book, the ideas are not arranged logically with forward and backward references. Instead the assorted papers cover an overlapping set of ideas, with many gaps and repetitions. They do not even present a useful historical perspective on the development of ideas, because Pinker's work is on such a broad array of topics. It's more like a set of snapshots of a bunch of different vacations by different groups, whose only common denominator is Pinker was in each group.

I don't mean the book is bad, just that general readers will find Pinker's other books present the same ideas in a far superior format.