How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker By Steven Pinker ISBN: 9780393318487 ASIN: B002DT4DEK Published: 1999 Number of Pages: 672 Edition: Other Binding: Paperback

Pricing & Availability: Additional Details: Product Type: Book Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Description: n this extraordinary book, Pinker, one of the world's leading cognitive scientists, does for the rest of the mind what he did for language in his 1994 bestseller The Language Instinct. He explains what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact, enjoy the arts, and ponder the mysteries of life. And he does it with the wit, clarity, and verve that earned The Language Instinct, worldwide critical acclaim and awards from major scientific societies. Pinker explains the mind by "reverse-engineering" it-figuring out what natural selection designed it to accomplish in the environment in which we evolved. The mind, he writes, is a system of "organs of computation" that allowed our ancestors to understand and outsmart objects, animals, plants, and each other. How the Mind Works explains many of the imponderables of everyday life. Why does a face look more attractive with makeup? How do "Magic-Eye" 3-D stereograms work? Why do we feel that a run of heads makes the coin more likely to land tails? Why is the thought of eating worms disgusting? Why do men challenge each other to duels and murder their ex-wives? Why are children bratty? Why do fools fall in love? Why are we soothed by paintings and music? he challenges fashionable ones, such as that passionate emotions are irrational, that parents socialize their children, that creativity springs from the unconscious, that nature is good and modern society corrupting, and that art and religion are expressions of our higher spiritual yearnings. How the Mind Works presents a big picture, but it is not a personal musing; it is a grand synthesis of the most satisfying explanations of our mental life that have been proposed in cognitive science and evolutionary biology, with insights from disciplines ranging from neuroscience to economics and social psychology. It is also fascinating, provocative, and thoroughly entertaining.

Library of Congress Control Number
   - LC control Number: 97001855

International Standard Book Number: 0393045358 :: 0393318486 (pbk.)
   - Terms of availability: $29.95
   - Terms of availability: 17.95

Library of Congress Call Number
   - Classification number: QP360.5
   - Item number: .P56 1997
   - Item number: .P56 1999

Dewey Decimal Classification Number
   - Edition number: 21
   - Classification number: 153

Main Entry - Personal Name
   - Personal name: Pinker, Steven,
   - Dates associated with a name: 1954-

Title Statement
   - Title: How the mind works /
   - Statement of responsibility, etc.: Steven Pinker
   - Statement of responsibility, etc.: Steven Pinker.

Edition Statement: 1st ed.

Publication, Distribution, etc. (Imprint)
   - Place of publication, distribution, etc.: New York :
   - Name of publisher, distribution, etc.: W. W. Norton,
   - Name of publisher, distribution, etc.: W.W. Norton,
   - Date of publication, distribution, etc.: 1999, c1997
   - Date of publication, distribution, etc.: 1999, c1997.
   - Date of publication, distribution, etc.: 1999.
   - Date of publication, distribution, etc.: c1997,1999.
   - Date of publication, distribution, etc.: c1997.

Physical Description
   - Extent: xii, 660 p. :
   - Extent: xii, 660 p. ;
   - Other physical details: ill. ;
   - Dimensions: 25 cm
   - Dimensions: 25 cm.

General Note: "First published as a Norton paperback 1999"--T.p. verso.: Originally published: c1997.

Bibliography, etc. Note
   - Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. 589-625) and index
   - Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. 589-625) and index.

Formatted Contents Note: Standard equipment -- Thinking machines -- Revenge of the nerds -- The mind's eye -- Good ideas -- Hotheads -- Family values -- The meaning of life.

Subject Added Entry - Topical Term
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Cognition
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Cognitive neuroscience
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Cognitive neuroscience.
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Evolution.
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Human evolution
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Human evolution.
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Natural selection
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Natural selection.
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Neuropsychology
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Neuropsychology.
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Psychology
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Psychology.
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Selection (Genetics)
   - General subdivision: physiology.