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The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature
 
 

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature (Paperback)

by Steven Pinker (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 512 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (26 Aug 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0143114247
  • ISBN-13: 978-0143114246
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 14 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 900,499 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Independent
`Immensely readable and stimulating. Pinker is a master at making complex ideas palatable' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Daily Mail
`Awesome ... Pinker writes lucidly and elegantly, and leavens the text with scores of perfectly judged anecdotes, jokes, cartoons and illustrations' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful words, 19 Jan 2008
By Peter Bracken (France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Pinker has done it again; another book of mesmerising intelligence and very smart ideas. But be warned: this book is not easy to digest, notwithstanding the lucidity of the writing. But then it deserves to be read very closely indeed: there is so much punch and weight on almost every page.

Pinker has already destroyed the simplistic notion that human nature is a social phenomenon, demonstrating how much of our behaviour and psychology is a product of our genetic evolution, and therefore instinctive.

In this book, he shows how language has evolved to reflect the mental concepts we have developed to make sense of the world: that is to say, although the real world may exist 'out there', it is mediated through our senses and the brain's interpretation of the data that they send to it. The concepts relate to time and space, matter and causality - and these concepts have been woven into our language. Pinker shows how, and does so in his characteristically enthusiastic, witty fashion.

A fabulous read and an intellectual treat.
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11 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Pointless, 11 Nov 2007
By Arthur Koch "sculptor" (Impruneta, Italy) - See all my reviews
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I can hardly believe that the same person who wrote "The Language Instinct" and "The Blank Slate" wrote this. At least half of the book is dedicated to a detailed division of words into minute catagories, in excruciating detail. This would be acceptable if there were a point, but no, its all academic deadwood, designed to put off as many would be semantic students as possible. I finished this book no wiser than before, with only a few anecdotes to the better.
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