Editing Steven Pinker (section)

==Views==
{{Liberalism US|intellectuals}}
[[File:Steven Pinker and Nils Brose G%C3%B6ttingen 10102010.JPG|thumb|300px |Pinker and Nils Brose speaking at a neuroscience conference]]

Pinker identifies as a [[Liberalism|liberal]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pinker |first1=Steven |title=The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined |date=September 25, 2012 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9780143122012 |page=180 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-vYCwAAQBAJ |access-date=17 December 2023}}</ref> who is critical of some aspects of the [[Left-wing politics|political left]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Blasdel |first1=Alex |title=Pinker's Progress: The Celebrity Scientist at the Center of the Culture Wars |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/sep/28/steven-pinker-celebrity-scientist-at-the-centre-of-the-culture-wars |access-date=17 December 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=28 Sep 2021}}</ref> He supports [[same-sex marriage]], a [[Universal Basic Income|universal basic income]], the legalization of [[Recreational drug use|drugs]], the [[Carbon tax|taxation of carbon]], and the abolition of [[capital punishment]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pinker |first1=Steven |title=Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress |date=February 13, 2018 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9780143111382 |pages=119–214 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J6grDwAAQBAJ |access-date=17 December 2023}}</ref> Pinker is a strong supporter of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cadenhead |first1=Rebecca |last2=Herszenhorn |first2=Miles |title=Steven Pinker and the Fight Over Academia's Future |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/10/27/steven-pinker-scrut/ |access-date=17 December 2023 |publisher=Harvard Crimson |date=27 October 2022}}</ref>  However, Pinker has argued that the far-left has created an atmosphere of intellectual intolerance on college campuses and elsewhere, and helped form the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard to combat what he described as an epidemic of censorship at universities.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pinker |first1=Steven |last2=Madras |first2=Bertha |title=Why We Created Harvard's Academic Freedom Council |url=https://www.persuasion.community/p/why-we-created-harvards-academic |access-date=17 December 2023 |publisher=Persuasion |date=21 April 2023}}</ref> He was a signatory of the [[A Letter on Justice and Open Debate|Letter on Justice and Open Debate]] which argued that discussion of political issues was being silenced by a widespread "intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and a tendency to dissolve complex issues into a binding moral certainty."<ref>{{cite news |title=A Letter on Justice and Open Debate |url=https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/ |access-date=17 December 2023 |publisher=Harper’s Weekly |date=7 July 2020}}</ref>

Pinker has sharply criticized [[Social conservatism|social conservatives]], such as former chairman of the [[President's Council on Bioethics]] [[Leon Kass]], for opposing [[Embryonic stem cell|stem cell research]], arguing that their moral views were mere expressions of disgust that were obstructing treatments that could save millions of lives.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pinker |first1=Steven |title=The Stupidity of Dignity |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/64674/the-stupidity-dignity |access-date=17 December 2023 |date=27 May 2008}}</ref>

Pinker is a frequent participant in public debates surrounding the contributions of science to contemporary society. Social commentators such as Ed West, author of ''The Diversity Illusion'', consider Pinker important and daring in his willingness to confront taboos, as in ''The Blank Slate''. According to West, the doctrine of ''[[tabula rasa]]'' remained accepted "as fact, rather than fantasy"<ref name="WestTelegraph">{{cite web | url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100177038/a-decade-after-steven-pinkers-the-blank-slate-why-is-human-nature-still-taboo/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120819195114/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100177038/a-decade-after-steven-pinkers-the-blank-slate-why-is-human-nature-still-taboo/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=August 19, 2012 | title=A decade after Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate, why is human nature still taboo? | work=The Daily Telegraph | date=August 17, 2012 | access-date=May 30, 2014 | author=West, Ed}}</ref> a decade after the book's publication. West describes Pinker as "no [[polemic]]ist, and he leaves readers to draw their own conclusions".<ref name="WestTelegraph" />

In January 2005 Pinker defended comments by then-President of Harvard University [[Lawrence Summers]]. Summers had speculated that in addition to differing societal demands and discrimination, "different availability of aptitude at the high end" may contribute to [[Women in STEM fields#Gender imbalance in STEM fields|gender gaps in mathematics and science]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Full Transcript: President Summers' Remarks at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Jan. 14 2005 |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/2/18/full-transcript-president-summers-remarks-at/ |access-date=25 January 2022 |publisher=The Harvard Crimson |date=February 18, 2005 |archive-date=January 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125154830/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/2/18/full-transcript-president-summers-remarks-at/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="pmid15841161">{{cite journal| author=Marks AR| title=Sex and the university system. | journal=J Clin Invest | year= 2005 | volume= 115 | issue= 4 | pages= 790 | pmid=15841161 | doi=10.1172/JCI24841 | pmc=1070438}}</ref><ref name="4TEEv">[https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/1/19/psychoanalysis-q-and-a-steven-pinker-in-an/ "Psychoanalysis Q-and-A: Steven Pinker"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420150338/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/1/19/psychoanalysis-q-and-a-steven-pinker-in-an/ |date=April 20, 2018 }} ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'' Accessed March 7, 2019.</ref> In a debate between Pinker and [[Elizabeth Spelke]] on gender and science, Pinker argued in favor of the proposition that the gender difference in representation in elite universities was "explainable by some combination of biological differences in average temperaments and talents interacting with socialization and bias".<ref name="M5g0d">{{cite web | url=http://edge.org/3rd_culture/debate05/debate05_index.html | title=The Science of Gender and Science: Pinker Vs. Spelke, A Debate | publisher=Edge.org | date=May 16, 2005 | access-date=May 10, 2014 | archive-date=April 29, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190429075811/https://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/debate05/debate05_index.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

In January 2009 Pinker wrote an article about the [[Personal Genome Project]] and its possible impact on the understanding of human nature in ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref name="n93JH">{{cite news |first=Steven |last=Pinker |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11Genome-t.html |url-access=registration |title=My Genome, My Self |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 11, 2009 |access-date=February 25, 2017 |archive-date=March 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170310211950/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11Genome-t.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He discussed the new developments in [[epigenetics]] and gene-environment interactions in the afterword to the 2016 edition of his book ''The Blank Slate''.<ref name="uR8aT">{{Cite web|url=https://impakter.com/steven-pinker/|title=A Talk with Professor Steven Pinker|date=August 8, 2017|access-date=July 22, 2020|archive-date=July 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715150533/https://impakter.com/steven-pinker/|url-status=live}}</ref> Pinker has been criticised for using the data of [[Scientific racism|scientific racists]] (on subjects unrelated to race), such as the blogger [[Steven Sailer]], with journalist [[Angela Saini]] stating that "for many people, Pinker's willingness to entertain the work of individuals who are on the far right and white supremacists has gone beyond the pale". Pinker has stated that he condemns racism.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Blasdel |first=Alex |date=2021-09-28 |title=Pinker's progress: the celebrity scientist at the centre of the culture wars |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/sep/28/steven-pinker-celebrity-scientist-at-the-centre-of-the-culture-wars |access-date=2023-07-29 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

In a November 2009 article for ''The New York Times'', Pinker wrote a mixed review of [[Malcolm Gladwell]]'s essays, criticizing his analytical methods.<ref name="1GVps">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/books/review/Pinker-t.html | work=The New York Times | first=Steven | last=Pinker | title=Malcolm Gladwell, Eclectic Detective | date=November 15, 2009 | access-date=February 25, 2017 | archive-date=January 12, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190112095033/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/books/review/Pinker-t.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Gladwell replied, disputing Pinker's comments about the importance of [[Intelligence quotient|IQ]] on teaching performance and by analogy the effect, if any, of draft order on quarterback performance in the [[National Football League]].<ref name="TwwxG">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/books/review/Letters-t-LETSGOTOTHET_LETTERS.html | work=The New York Times | title=Let's Go to the Tape | date=November 29, 2009 | access-date=February 25, 2017 | archive-date=June 13, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613144910/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/books/review/Letters-t-LETSGOTOTHET_LETTERS.html | url-status=live }}</ref> [[Advanced NFL Stats]] addressed the issue statistically, siding with Pinker and showing that differences in methodology could explain the two men's differing opinions.<ref name="C9eDG">{{cite web |last=Burke |first=Brian |url=http://www.advancednflstats.com/2010/04/steven-pinker-vs-malcolm-gladwell-and.html | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110908140639/http://www.advancednflstats.com/2010/04/steven-pinker-vs-malcolm-gladwell-and.html | archive-date= September 8, 2011 | title=Steven Pinker vs. Malcolm Gladwell and Drafting QBs |publisher=Advanced NFL Stats |date=April 22, 2010 |access-date=January 20, 2012}}</ref>

In an appearance for [[BBC World Service]]'s ''Exchanges At The Frontier'' programme, an audience member questioned whether the virtuous developments in culture and human nature (documented in ''[[The Better Angels of Our Nature]]'') could have expressed in our biology either through genetic or epigenetic expression. Pinker responded that it was unlikely since "some of the declines have occurred far too rapidly for them to be explicable by biological evolution, which has a speed limit measured in generations, but crime can plummet in a span of 15 years and some of these humanitarian reforms like eliminating slavery and torture occurred in, say, 50 years".<ref name="F4e6e">"[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00m98km Exchanges At The Frontier 2011] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121206221853/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00m98km |date=December 6, 2012 }}", BBC.</ref> Helga Vierich and Cathryn Townsend wrote a critical review of Pinker's sweeping "civilizational" explanations for patterns of human violence and warfare in response to a lecture he gave at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] in September 2015.<ref name="um9e1">Human violence and morality http://online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/pdf/10.3828/hgr.2015.7 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106184948/https://online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/pdf/10.3828/hgr.2015.7 |date=November 6, 2018 }}</ref>

In his 2018 book ''[[Enlightenment Now]]'', Pinker posited that [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] rationality should be defended against attacks from both the political left and political right.<ref>[https://harvardmagazine.com/2018/03/steven-pinker-enlightenment-now Can Science Justify Itself?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816000043/https://harvardmagazine.com/2018/03/steven-pinker-enlightenment-now |date=August 16, 2018 }} Ada Palmer. ''[[Harvard Magazine]]'', March–April 2018.</ref> In a debate with Pinker, post-colonial theorist [[Homi K. Bhabha|Homi Bhabha]] said that Enlightenment philosophy had immoral consequences such as inequality, slavery, imperialism, world wars, and genocide, and that Pinker downplayed them. Pinker argued that Bhabha had perceived the causal relationship between Enlightenment thinking and these sources of suffering "backwards", responding in part that "The natural state of humanity, at least since the dawn of civilization, is poverty, disease, ignorance, exploitation, and violence (including slavery and imperial conquest). It is knowledge, mobilised to improve human welfare, that allows anyone to rise above this state."<ref name="PQPaB">{{Cite web|url=https://iainews.iai.tv/articles/does-the-enlightenment-need-defending-auid-1149|title=Does the Enlightenment Need Defending?|date=September 13, 2018|website=IAI TV – Philosophy for our times: cutting edge debates and talks from the world's leading thinkers|access-date=December 4, 2018|archive-date=December 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181205003835/https://iainews.iai.tv/articles/does-the-enlightenment-need-defending-auid-1149|url-status=live}}</ref> In a 2019 story in [[Current Affairs (magazine)|''Current Affairs'']], proprietor [[Nathan J. Robinson|Nathan Robinson]] criticised Pinker, saying that he misrepresents his critics' arguments against his work.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Robinson |first=Nathan J. |title=The World's Most Annoying Man |url=https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2019/05/the-worlds-most-annoying-man |access-date=2023-07-29 |journal=Current Affairs|date=May 29, 2019 }}</ref>

In 2020, an open letter to the [[Linguistic Society of America]] requesting the removal of Pinker from its list of LSA Fellows and its list of media experts was signed by hundreds of academics.<ref name="atlantic">{{cite news |last1=Friedersdorf |first1=Conor |title=The Chilling Effect of an Attack on a Scholar |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/steven-pinker-will-be-just-fine/614323/ |access-date=10 August 2020 |work=The Atlantic |date=20 July 2020 |archive-date=August 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809180659/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/steven-pinker-will-be-just-fine/614323/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The letter accused Pinker of a "pattern of drowning out the voices of people suffering from racist and sexist violence, in particular in the immediate aftermath of violent acts and/or protests against the systems that created them", citing as examples six of Pinker's tweets.<ref name="AKVpm">{{cite news |last1=Powell |first1=Michael |title=How a Famous Harvard Professor Became a Target Over His Tweets |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/us/steven-pinker-harvard.html |access-date=16 August 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=15 July 2020 |archive-date=February 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220210201038/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/us/steven-pinker-harvard.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Pinker said in reply that through this letter, he, and more importantly, younger academics with less protection, were being threatened by "a regime of intimidation that constricts the theatre of ideas."<ref name="AKVpm"/><ref name="JxHzG">{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/man-refused-cancelled/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/man-refused-cancelled/ |archive-date=January 11, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Steven Pinker – The man who refused to be cancelled|first=Tim|last=Stanley|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=July 18, 2020|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="ss0ny">{{Cite web|url=https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/peter-isackson-steven-pinker-george-orwell-cancel-culture-news-78461/|title=Steven Pinker and the Debate Over 'Cancel Culture'|first=Peter|last=Isackson|date=July 22, 2020|website=Fair Observer|access-date=July 22, 2020|archive-date=July 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200723184459/https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/peter-isackson-steven-pinker-george-orwell-cancel-culture-news-78461/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="bj0zX">{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/stink-academic-hypocrisy-steven-pinker-usurps-humanist-values/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/stink-academic-hypocrisy-steven-pinker-usurps-humanist-values/ |archive-date=January 11, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The stink of academic hypocrisy: Steven Pinker usurps the very humanist values he claims to hold|first=Tim|last=Smith-Laing|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=July 20, 2020|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Whitworth |first=Damian |date=9 July 2020 |title=Steven Pinker: I had to speak out. Cancel culture is Orwellian |newspaper=[[The Times]] |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/steven-pinker-i-had-to-speak-out-cancel-culture-is-orwellian-sr2q03nh6 |access-date=2023-03-22 |issn=0140-0460 |archive-date=April 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412012940/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/steven-pinker-i-had-to-speak-out-cancel-culture-is-orwellian-sr2q03nh6 |url-status=live }}</ref> Several academics criticized the letter and expressed support for Pinker.<ref name="atlantic" /> The executive committee of the Linguistic Society of America declined to strike Pinker from its lists and issued a response letter stating that "It is not the mission of the Society to control the opinions of its members, nor their expression."<ref name="z7wZA">{{cite news |last1=Bailey |first1=Ronald |title=Steven Pinker Beats Cancel Culture Attack |url=https://reason.com/2020/07/10/steven-pinker-beats-cancel-culture-attack/ |access-date=10 August 2020 |work=Reason.com |date=10 July 2020 |archive-date=August 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812153619/https://reason.com/2020/07/10/steven-pinker-beats-cancel-culture-attack/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In December 2024, Pinker resigned from the board of honorary members of the [[Freedom from Religion Foundation]] over what he and several colleagues viewed as the Foundation's "quasi-religious" approach to defining gender. His resignation was followed by those of [[Jerry Coyne]] and [[Richard Dawkins]].<ref>{{cite web| last= Henderson| first= Cameron| title= Richard Dawkins quits atheism foundation for backing transgender 'religion'| url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/30/richard-dawkins-quits-atheism-foundation-over-trans-rights/ | date= 30 December 2024| work= [[The Daily Telegraph]]| accessdate= 31 December 2024| archive-url= https://archive.today/20241231170416/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/30/richard-dawkins-quits-atheism-foundation-over-trans-rights/ |
archive-date= 31 December 2024 }} </ref>