Editing Steven Pinker (section)

===''The Better Angels of Our Nature''===
{{main|The Better Angels of Our Nature}}
[[File:Mars (Hausbuch 1480).png|thumb|upright=1.5|Detail from "Mars" in ''Das Mittelalterliche Hausbuch'', c.&nbsp;1475&nbsp;– 1480. Pinker used the image in ''[[The Better Angels of Our Nature]]'' to illustrate violence in the [[Middle Ages]].<ref name="u14hW">Pinker, Steven (2011). ''The Better Angels of Our Nature''. Allen Lane. p. 66</ref>]]
In ''The Better Angels of Our Nature'', published in 2011, Pinker argues that violence, including tribal warfare, homicide, cruel punishments, child abuse, animal cruelty, domestic violence, lynching, pogroms, and international and civil wars, has decreased over multiple scales of time and magnitude. Pinker considers it unlikely that human nature has changed. In his view, it is more likely that human nature comprises inclinations toward violence and those that counteract them, the "better angels of our nature". He outlines several "major historical declines of violence" that all have their own social/cultural/economic causes.<ref name="http://iai.tv/video/the-decline-of-violence">{{cite web|last=Pinker|first=Steven|title=The Decline of Violence|url=http://iai.tv/video/the-decline-of-violence|publisher=IAI|access-date=January 3, 2014|archive-date=April 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401071018/http://iai.tv/video/the-decline-of-violence|url-status=live}}</ref>

Response to the book was divided. Many critics found its arguments convincing and its synthesis of a large volume of historical evidence compelling.<ref name="30elX">{{cite web |author=Coffman, Scott |date=September 28, 2012 |title=Book Review: 'The Better Angels of Our Nature' |url=http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120929/FEATURES06/309290026/Book-review-Better-Angels-Our-Nature-?nclick_check=1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119173706/http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120929/FEATURES06/309290026/Book-review-Better-Angels-Our-Nature-?nclick_check=1 |archive-date=January 19, 2013 |work=Courier Journal}}</ref><ref name="eFKhU">{{cite news |last=Kohn |first=Marek |date=October 7, 2011 |title=Book Review: 'The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and its Causes', By Steven Pinker |work=The Independent |location=UK |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-better-angels-of-our-nature-the-decline-of-violence-in-history-and-its-causes-by-steven-pinker-2366392.html |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-better-angels-of-our-nature-the-decline-of-violence-in-history-and-its-causes-by-steven-pinker-2366392.html |archive-date=May 25, 2022}}</ref><ref name="jsIpE">{{cite web |last=Brittan |first=Samuel |date=October 22, 2011 |title=The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and its Causes by Stephen Pinker |url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/7325058/the-better-angels-of-our-nature-the-decline-of-violence-in-history-and-its-causes-by-stephen-pinker/ |work=The Spectator |access-date=May 30, 2014 |archive-date=2013-06-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615222059/https://www.spectator.co.uk/books/7325058/the-better-angels-of-our-nature-the-decline-of-violence-in-history-and-its-causes-by-stephen-pinker/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> This and other aspects drew criticism, including the use of deaths per capita as a metric, Pinker's liberal humanism, the focus on Europe, the interpretation of historical data, and its image of indigenous people.<ref name="fry2013">{{cite book | url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858996.001.0001/acprof-9780199858996 | title=War, Peace and Human Nature: The Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views | first=D.P. | last=Fry | editor-first1=Douglas P | editor-last1=Fry | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2013 | doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858996.001.0001 | isbn=978-0-19-985899-6 | access-date=April 19, 2022 | archive-date=May 7, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220507094813/https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199858996.001.0001/acprof-9780199858996 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="QikDS">{{cite web | url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bookreview-steven-pinker-the-better-angels-of-our-nature-why-violence-has-declined | title=Book Review | first=R. | last=Epstein | work=Scientific American | date=October 2011 | access-date=May 30, 2014 | archive-date=September 14, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914140139/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bookreview-steven-pinker-the-better-angels-of-our-nature-why-violence-has-declined | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="3EtoZ">{{Cite magazine | url=https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2011/10/03/111003crbo_books_kolbert | magazine=The New Yorker | title=Peace In Our Time: Steven Pinker's History of Violence in Decline | first=Elizabeth | last=Kolbert |date=October 3, 2011}}</ref><ref name="eE51i">{{cite web | url=http://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/1081/corry-on-pinker.pdf | title=The case of the 'Brutal Savage': Poirot or Clouseau?: Why Steven Pinker, like Jared Diamond, is wrong | author=Corry, Stephen | publisher=Survival International | access-date=May 30, 2014 | archive-date=March 3, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182324/http://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/1081/corry-on-pinker.pdf | url-status=live }} (Summary at [http://www.survivalinternational.org/articles/3289-brutal-savages The myth of the ‘Brutal Savage’] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140418180905/http://www.survivalinternational.org/articles/3289-brutal-savages |date=April 18, 2014 }})</ref> Archaeologist [[David Wengrow]] summarized Pinker's approach to [[archaeological science]] as "a modern psychologist making it up as he goes along".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Graeber |first1=David |title=[[The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity]] |date=2021 |first2=David |last2=Wengrow |author-link2=David Wengrow |isbn=978-0-374-72110-7 |location=New York |oclc=1284998482 |section=On the pursuit of happiness}}</ref>