How the Mind Works

This complex, original work remains nearly as avant-garde today as when Harvard professor, public intellectual and prodigious bestseller Steven Pinker wrote it in 1997. Using humor, Pinker explains difficult concepts and theories including natural selection, the “computational theory of mind” and human nature. Pinker even attempts an ambitious, if ultimately unsatisfying, explanation of the meaning of life. Anyone interested in human behavior and evolutionary psychology will embrace this book.

The mind is a system of organs of computation, designed by natural selection to solve the kinds of problems our ancestors faced. Steven Pinker

Pinker is verbose, to say the least. He writes with admirable momentum and no one could argue with his intellectual credentials and, indeed, his peers do not; they rave about his insights. You may find Pinker’s exuberance tiring, and chose to read in stages. But, consistently, he will reward your efforts.