Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode What Makes Us ... Us
About Steven Pinker's TED Talk
Psychologist Steven Pinker describes how far we've come in understanding how both nature and nurture make us ... us.
About Steven Pinker
Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker questions the very nature of our thoughts — the way we use words, how we learn, and how we relate to others. In his books, he has applied sophisticated language analysis to topics of mass appeal such as language, human nature, and violence.
In his book, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, he argues that we aren't born with "blank slates" to be shaped entirely by our parents and environment.
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