Max

“In most cases the correct explanation will invoke a complex interaction between heredity and environment: culture is crucial, but culture could not exist without mental faculties that allow humans to create and learn culture to begin with. My goal in this book is not to argue that genes are everything and culture is nothing—no one believes that—but to explore why the extreme position (that culture is everything) is so often seen as moderate, and the moderate position is seen as extreme.”
― Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

“If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. If it’s a duck, it’s likely to swim, fly, have a back off which water rolls, and contain meat that’s tasty when wrapped in a pancake with scallions and hoisin sauce.”
― Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

“We concoct neologisms (quark, meme, clone, deep structure), invent slang (to spam, to diss, to flame, to surf the web, a spin doctor), borrow useful words from other languages (joie de vivre, schlemiel, angst, machismo), or coin new metaphors (waste time, vote with your feet, push the outside of the envelope).”
― Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

“No learning rule can be entirely devoid of theoretical content nor can the tabula ever be completely rasa.” 13”
― Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature