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How the Mind Works

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How the Mind Works

By: Steven Pinker
Narrated by: Mel Foster
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About this listen

In this delightful, acclaimed best seller, one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists tackles the workings of the human mind. What makes us rational—and why are we so often irrational? How do we see in three dimensions? What makes us happy, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sexually aroused? Why do we fall in love? And how do we grapple with the imponderables of morality, religion, and consciousness?

How the Mind Works synthesizes the most satisfying explanations of our mental life from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and other fields to explain what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact, enjoy the arts, and contemplate the mysteries of life. This new edition of Pinker’s bold and buoyant classic is updated with a new foreword by the author.

©2011 Steven Pinker (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Biological Sciences Neuroscience & Neuropsychology Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Artificial Intelligence Thought-Provoking Human Brain Genetics Physiology

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Critic reviews

“Undeniably brilliant.” ( Newsday)
"Big, brash, and a lot of fun.” ( Time)
“Hugely entertaining.... always sparkling and provoking.” ( Wall Street Journal)
All stars
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It feels like everything you have learnt could be turned upside down in a flash and it still makes sense.

Mind blowing

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Pinker has written a lot of books, all very readable, and this helps to understand yourself and no estaban tricked by advertising and propaganda n

Fascinating, really, and gives a good basis

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I wish Prof. Pinker were the President of the USA! What a brilliant mind he is! Great thinkers like him should be in charge of our planet.

Fascinating!

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Pinker's work will add to the rich tapestry of work humans have built up, thanks to the evolutionary pressures which adapted aspects of the human mind, allowing us to learn, record, store and communicate. I shall take great enjoyment going back to this book again and again, and have no doubt I shall get something new from it each time. Matt Ridley, Pinker and Phil Tetlock all have that rare ability to marry insight, abstract thought and storytelling, while modestly conveying their own passionate awe of their subject. My only criticism was the narrators voice, which grated a little.

Outstanding book. Pinker's work is extraordinary.

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I'll describe myself as a philosophy lover of the technical kind, with a more than casual interest in artificial intelligence.
I enjoyed this book enough to listen to it twice, while worrying on my app.

enjoyed it enough to listen to it twice.

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Everyone should read this book at least once! I myself will re-read it in a paperback format, since I want to spend a little bit more time on some chapters. An amazing explanation and dissection of the processes of the mind. I absolutely loves it and recommend it to everyone!

Mind blowing!!!

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Perhaps one of if not one of the most curious books to which ive ever read or listened. Would recommend to all, even beyond psychology

Insightful, intense and loving

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Very thought provking, full of facts and interesting new ideas, bur a little boring if read all in one go. A good book to take in small bites.

How The Mind Works

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Very convincing and fascinating introduction of computational theory of mind and evolutionary psychology
Content has withstood time surprisingly well, 25 years after publication, despite the rapid advances in the field.

Brilliant!

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Steven Pinker, a Harvard-based, evolutionary psychologist, is one of the world's top thinkers. You simply have to come to terms with what he has to say about the mind, language and human nature. His books are long. Having read some and listened to some, I'd say listening is best. This is probably his seminal work - it is certainly the one he is most proud of. I enjoyed 'The Blank Slate' and ' The Better Angels' more because they apply his ideas more widely to politics, history and society. But in this book he is developing his core idea - that the mind is a natural phenomena, a product of evolutionary change, and that if we understand how it has adapted, particularly during the millennia when we were hunter-gathers, we will appreciate both how remarkable it is and what its limitations as a tool for thinking and perceiving are.

As other reviewers have said, it is very detailed. This is essential for Pinker to show how deeply he has thought about the issues and to display his command of the available research. Some bits will appeal more to some readers, I was more interested in the behavioural stuff about the way we interact with each other, than the way the mind interprets and uses data from our eyes. All in all it is a tour de force, which lives up to its title. I was utterly convinced by it and have accepted what he calls the 'computational theory of mind'. Now I want to read his crtics to see if there is a viable alternative view.

Everyone should be familiar with Steven Pinker

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