Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
I’m surprised they mentioned the Epstein thing at all given how he shuts down that conversation every time. Though, it would have been better if they actually went into more detail about how Pinker helped Epstein row back the charges against a minor on a linguistic technicality.Pinkerâs progress: the celebrity scientist at the centre of the culture wars
The long read: How the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker became one of the world’s most contentious thinkerswww.theguardian.com
I’m surprised they mentioned the Epstein thing at all given how he shuts down that conversation every time. Though, it would have been better if they actually went into more detail about how Pinker helped Epstein row back the charges against a minor on a linguistic technicality.
Link them to the wanking over Bratz dolls threadI have to take our annual sexual harassment training. I'm not sure how the fuck I'm supposed to harass people in work when I haven't shown up for about 2 years.
This doesn't sound great. I have never had a sore goolie.Minor complaint: I have very sore left bollock. Ouch
Thoughts and prayersMinor complaint: I have very sore left bollock. Ouch
yeah, iirc they were well balanced in that he pitched (well, in 'the blank slate') the evolutionary psychology version of why people end up the way they do, versus the blank slate version (i.e. environmental) version and made a good argument that neither could justify some of the arguments some proponents claimed they could.I suppose the journalist realised that their article couldn’t possibly be taken seriously *unless* it mentioned the various controversies.
I read a couple of pinker books almost twenty years ago and they were truly revelatory to me — in retrospect, I suppose mostly because they summarised some then-emergent ideas that were badly in need of a pop-science summing-up. but since then, he really has settled into this strange role of being the court nerd of the davos neoliberal-elite set.
There's just something about "evolutionary psychology" that immediately gets my back up. I suppose it's such a small jump to "we can use this to sell people things" and using it to justify all sorts of horrors that makes me suspicious of anyone into this kind of thing.i remember a couple of friends who had done sociology in college were quite interested in the book, because he had a fair old pop at sociology as a system of rules created from the top down which had little empirical reason to be trusted.
Seems fairly blindingly obvious to me, no? Didn't E.O. Wilson write about this shit in the 70s?The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a ... 2002 book by the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, in which the author makes a case against tabula rasa models in the social sciences, arguing that human behavior is substantially shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations
Kind of. The ideas moved on a bit since Wilson but I’d much sooner read one of his than another Pinker book. Pinker’s early books are grand but often falls into the trap of those evolutionary psychology “just so” stories that are really non-explanations. I mean, there’s some interesting evolutionary psychology out there but as a field it’s a mess of twaddle.Seems fairly blindingly obvious to me, no? Didn't E.O. Wilson write about this shit in the 70s?
Easily one of the biggest fucking scams in the countryI'm doing my safepass renewal today.
That's true for an awful lot of psychology full stop, afaik. Was doing some research on positive psychology at one stage and couldn't help thinking "if this the best they can do I wish I had studied psychology in college, I'd be a full professor now no fucking bother"I mean, there’s some interesting evolutionary psychology out there but as a field it’s a mess of twaddle.
I once put some Ikea furniture together and couldn’t help thinking “if this is the best they can do I wish I had studied building things in college, I’d be a master builder of superstructures now no bother!”That's true for an awful lot of psychology full stop, afaik. Was doing some research on positive psychology at one stage and couldn't help thinking "if this the best they can do I wish I had studied psychology in college, I'd be a full professor now no fucking bother"
Yeah, what I was getting at was that positive psychology was not reflective of the field as a whole. I mean, I’m not saying there isn’t shoddy experimental design or p-hacking in other areas of psychology (there definitely is, and in every other field of science) but a lot of psychology is incredibly challenging to work in/understand. I mean, I’m not thick and I can’t get the lowest rung lecturing positions here in Ireland./me looks hurt
Have you read many positive psychology papers? Martin Seligman and the like? All my references are on a different computer at this stage so I have no examples, but the impression I got even in widely cited stuff was shoddy experimental design and rampant p-hacking
Upgrade your account now to disable all ads...
Upgrade nowWe use essential cookies to make this site work, and optional cookies to enhance your experience.