Editing Steven Pinker (section)

==Biography==
Pinker was born in [[Montreal]], Quebec, in 1954, to a middle-class [[Jewish culture|secular Jewish]] family in an English-speaking community.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Language Learnability and Language Development, With New Commentary by the Author|author=Pinker, S.|date=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674042179|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P7iEJGLESOMC|access-date=October 10, 2014}}</ref><ref name="fIzy8">{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/sapinker/status/990944371578109952|title=A Montreal pilgrimage in the footsteps of Leonard Cohen (the girl standing next to the young Cohen in the group photo is my mother, Roslyn Wiesenfeld Pinker).https://www.jta.org/2018/04/24/news-opinion/montreal-pilgrimage-footsteps-leonard-cohen#.WucYP-F0APc.twitter&nbsp;…|first=Steven|last=Pinker|date=April 30, 2018|access-date=May 30, 2019|archive-date=April 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430232246/https://twitter.com/sapinker/status/990944371578109952|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Citation |title=Sex Differences, Human Nature, & Identity Politics (Pt. 1) {{!}} Steven Pinker {{!}} ACADEMIA {{!}} Rubin Report | date=March 21, 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYf6dD4N86E |access-date=2023-06-22 |language=en |archive-date=June 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622183109/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYf6dD4N86E |url-status=live }}</ref> His grandparents immigrated to Canada from [[Poland]] and [[Romania]] in 1926,<ref name="4e2et">{{cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/a96b18bc-3ec6-11e2-87bc-00144feabdc0 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/a96b18bc-3ec6-11e2-87bc-00144feabdc0 |archive-date=December 10, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=At home: Steven Pinker |website=[[Financial Times]]|date=December 14, 2012 }}</ref><ref name="BypAx">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zCZUpYlozycC&pg=PA87|title=Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist|first=John|last=Brockman|date=January 7, 2019|publisher=Vintage Books|via=Google Books|isbn=9781400076864|access-date=October 16, 2015|archive-date=June 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630210707/https://books.google.com/books?id=zCZUpYlozycC&pg=PA87|url-status=live}}</ref> and owned a small necktie factory in Montreal.<ref name="RYbHm">{{cite news|last=Pinker|first=Steven|title=Groups and Genes|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/77727/groups-and-genes|magazine=[[The New Republic]]|date=June 26, 2006|access-date=October 25, 2017|archive-date=May 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508053654/https://newrepublic.com/article/77727/groups-and-genes|url-status=live}}</ref> His father, Harry, worked in real estate and was a lawyer. His mother, Roslyn, was originally a homemaker, but later became a guidance counsellor and a high-school vice-principal. In an interview, Pinker described his mother as "very intellectual" and "an intense reader [who] knows everything". His brother, Robert, worked for the [[Government of Canada|Canadian government]] for several decades as an administrator and a policy analyst, while his sister, [[Susan Pinker]], is a [[psychologist]] and writer who authored ''[[The Sexual Paradox]]'' and ''The Village Effect''. Susan is also a columnist for ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="siblings">{{Cite book | author=Shermer, Michael | author-link=Michael Shermer | date=March 1, 2001 | title=The Pinker Instinct | location=Altadena, CA | publisher=Skeptics Society & Skeptic Magazine | url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-10144194_ITM | access-date=September 11, 2007 | archive-date=October 10, 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010125240/http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-10144194_ITM | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="9N2qu">[https://www.theguardian.com/Archive/Article/0,4273,3926387,00.html Steven Pinker: the mind reader] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200217233149/https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/nov/06/1 |date=February 17, 2020 }} ''[[The Guardian]]'' Accessed November 25, 2006.</ref>

Pinker graduated from [[Dawson College]] in 1973. He graduated from [[McGill University]] in 1976 with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in psychology, then did doctoral studies in [[experimental psychology]] at [[Harvard University]] under [[Stephen Kosslyn]], receiving a [[PhD]] in 1979. He did research at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) for a year, then became a professor at Harvard and later, [[Stanford University]].<ref name="dZnLj">{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Steven-Pinker|title=Britannica Encyclopedia|access-date=October 12, 2019|archive-date=June 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150629134348/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Steven-Pinker|url-status=live}}</ref>

From 1982 until 2003 Pinker taught at the [[MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences|Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences]] at [[MIT]], was the co-director of the Center for [[Cognitive science|Cognitive Science]] (1985–1994), and eventually became the director of the Center for [[Cognitive neuroscience|Cognitive Neuroscience]] (1994–1999),<ref name="BwnYE">{{Citation|title=Curriculum Vitae|publisher=[[Harvard University]]|url=http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/cv_steven_pinker_1.pdf|access-date=June 23, 2017|archive-date=July 15, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170715191847/http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/cv_steven_pinker_1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> taking a one-year sabbatical at the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]], in 1995–96. Since 2003 he has served as the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steven Pinker {{!}} Lowell House |url=https://lowell.harvard.edu/people/steven-pinker |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=lowell.harvard.edu |language=en}}</ref> and between 2008 and 2013 he also held the title of Harvard College Professor in recognition of his dedication to teaching.<ref name="LWeeA">{{cite web |author=Pinker, Steven |url=http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/about/longbio.html |title=Official Biography. Harvard University |publisher=Pinker.wjh.harvard.edu |access-date=January 20, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051229054325/http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/about/longbio.html |archive-date=December 29, 2005}}</ref> In the early 2010s, he gave lectures as a visiting professor at the [[New College of the Humanities]], a private college in London.<ref name="haFwX">[http://www.nchum.org/who-we-are/the-professoriate "The professoriate"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608234526/http://www.nchum.org/who-we-are/the-professoriate |date=June 8, 2011}}, New College of the Humanities. Retrieved June 8, 2011.</ref><ref name="0hbEQ">[https://web.archive.org/web/20121130052357/http://www.nchum.org/faculty/professor-steven-pinker "Professor Steven Pinker"], New College of the Humanities. Retrieved November 4, 2014.</ref>

Pinker married [[Nancy Etcoff (psychologist)|Nancy Etcoff]] in 1980 and they divorced in 1992; he married again in 1995 and again divorced.<ref name="wives">[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0684348/bio Biography for Steven Pinker at imdb] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151212032424/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0684348/bio |date=December 12, 2015 }}. Retrieved September 12, 2007.</ref> His third wife, whom he married in 2007, is the novelist and philosopher [[Rebecca Goldstein]].<ref name="Blagg">[http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/about/media/2005_11_04_harvardcrimson.html "How Steven Pinker Works" by Kristin E. Blagg] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017070050/http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/about/media/2005_11_04_harvardcrimson.html |date=October 17, 2014}} ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'' Accessed February 3, 2006.</ref> He has two stepdaughters, the novelist [[Yael Goldstein Love]] and the poet Danielle Blau. Pinker adopted [[atheism]] at 13, but at various times was a "cultural Jew".<ref name="Dougla">[https://www.theguardian.com/Archive/Article/0,4273,3926387,00.html "Steven Pinker: the mind reader" by Ed Douglas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200217233149/https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/nov/06/1 |date=February 17, 2020 }} ''[[The Guardian]]'' Accessed February 3, 2006.</ref><ref name="Point of Inquiry Interview">{{cite web | url=http://www.pointofinquiry.org/steven_pinker_evolutionary_psychology_and_human_nature/ | title=Podcast:Steven Pinker - Evolutionary Psychology and Human Nature | publisher=Point of Inquiry with D.J. Grothe | date=February 23, 2007 | first=D.J. | last=Grothe | author-link=D. J. Grothe | access-date=December 29, 2014 | archive-date=July 24, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724031847/http://www.pointofinquiry.org/steven_pinker_evolutionary_psychology_and_human_nature/ | url-status=dead }}</ref><!-- In 2007, Pinker lent his name and expertise to the criminal defense of [[Jeffrey Epstein]].<ref name="nvcIO">{{Cite web|title=Steven Pinker's aid in Jeffrey Epstein's legal defense renews criticism of the increasingly divisive public intellectual|url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/17/steven-pinkers-aid-jeffrey-epsteins-legal-defense-renews-criticism-increasingly|website=www.insidehighered.com|language=en|access-date=May 31, 2020}}</ref><ref name="6YwW8">{{Cite web|title=Jeffrey Epstein's First Criminal Case Was Helped By A Famous Harvard Language Expert|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-alan-dershowitz-steven-pinker|website=BuzzFeed News|language=en|access-date=May 31, 2020}}</ref> --> Pinker is an avid [[Cycling|cyclist]].<ref name="bike">{{cite web | url=https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a39503784/steven-pinker-scientist-cycling-profile/ | title=This Harvard Cognitive Psychologist Can't Stop Thinking Deeply About Cycling | date=April 2022 | access-date=September 2, 2022 | archive-date=July 7, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707171616/https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a39503784/steven-pinker-scientist-cycling-profile/ | url-status=live }}</ref>