“The great Harvard psychologist Gordon Allport had died years before I ...” — Steven Pinker Quote

“The great Harvard psychologist Gordon Allport had died years before I entered the program, but he had written an "Epistle to Thesis Writers" that was still being handed down from generation to generation of doctoral candidates. Allport tried to steer students away from the clutter and fog of professional prose and offered as a model an essay by a ten-year-old girl, who, he wrote, merited a higher degree "if not for the accuracy of her knowledge, then at least for the clarity of her diction":”

“With violence, as with so many other concerns, human nature is the problem, but human nature is also the solution.”

“Trivers, pursuing his theory of the emotions to its logical conclusion, notes that in a world of walking lie detectors the best strategy is to believe your own lies. You can’t leak your hidden intentions if you don’t think they are your intentions. According to his theory of self-deception, the conscious mind sometimes hides the truth from itself the better to hide it from others. But the truth is useful, so it should be registered somewhere in the mind, walled off from the parts that interact with other people.”

“For all the tribulations in our lives, for all the troubles that remain in the world, the decline of violence is an accomplishment that we can savor - and an impetus to cherish the forces of civilization and enlightenment that made it possible.”

“As we were on our way out, one of the orthopedic residents called to us. “Hey, Gary, going back again? Don’t you guys ever leave?”

“Thought and science are therefore raising problems which their terms of study can never answer, many of which are doubtless problems only for thought. The trisection of an angle is similarly an insoluble problem only for compass and straight-edge construction, and Achilles cannot overtake the tortoise so long as their progress is considered piecemeal, endlessly having the distance between them. However, as it is not Achilles but the method of measurement which fails to catch up with the tortoise, so it is not man but his method of thought which fails to find fulfillment in experience.”

“In the conditions of modern life the rule is absolute, the race which does not value trained intelligence is doomed.”

“No Need for Time Before the Creation of the World”

“Even if the intelligent design of some structure has been established, it still is a separate question whether a wise, powerful, and beneficent God ought to have designed a complex, information-rich structure one way or another. For the sake of argument, let's grant that certain designed structures are not simply, as Gould put it, "odd" or "funny," but even cruel. What of it? Philosophical theology has abundant resources for dealing with the problem of evil, maintaining a God who is both omnipotent and benevolent in the face of evil.”