Steven Pinker
Harvard psychologist: human nature is real, violence is falling, reason and science drive progress.
13 videos analysed · 43 quotes checked word for word · updated 2026-10-22
Key facts
- Born in Montreal in 1954; PhD Harvard 1979; professor of psychology at Harvard since 2003. Wikipédia 2026 · Steven Pinker
- The Blank Slate (2002) was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Wikipédia 2002 · The Blank Slate
- Elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2016. Wikipédia 2026 · Steven Pinker
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe became an atheist at 13 and calls himself a 'cultural Jew'. He received the Humanist of the Year award from the American Humanist Association in 2006. In a Conversations with History interview he calls himself "a very clearcut atheist and secularist and cosmopolitan", and in 2026 he told Ross Douthat that the lack of evidence for gods makes the idea divisive, and in another 2026 interview that modern science says the universe was not created for a purpose.
- The universe was not created for a purpose, according to modern science; seeing purpose everywhere is a natural intuition, not a sign that a creator exists. Video 2026 · Harvard Professor: Tech…
- There is no good evidence for gods, so beliefs about them divide people. For miracles he cites the rule that extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence, as Hume argued. Video 2026 · Do We Need God? Steven Pinker…2
- Against Douthat, he says God cannot give humanity a shared purpose: since the evidence is missing, the idea divides people instead of uniting them. Video 2026 · Do We Need God? Steven Pinker…
Society does better when people see the universe as made for us, with a shared cosmic purpose.
He answers that God cannot give humanity a shared purpose: with no good evidence for gods, the idea divides people instead of uniting them.
Without God, morality has no point of reference outside the norms of one's society: human rights cannot be shown under a microscope.
He answers that there are plenty of secular reasons to be moral: what he demands of others he must accept for himself, and everyone is better off when people help rather than hurt each other. God has nothing to do with it.
Defends : Against miracles
In The Blank Slate he rejects the 'ghost in the machine': a soul making choices free from biology. The mind comes from the evolved brain. On video he repeats it: "there is no free-floating entity called the mind" apart from neural activity, thoughts and feelings are patterns of neural activity, and consciousness ends when the brain stops. He calls his view naturalism, not materialism: "nothing spooky, no ghosts, no spirits". On the hard problem he sees a real explanatory gap, but says puzzlement is no proof of a miracle.
- Thoughts and feelings are patterns of activity in neural networks; there is no free-floating mind apart from them. Video 2014 · Understanding Human Nature with…2
- When brain activity stops, consciousness ends. He would change his mind only if a medium could tell where a dead aunt hid her jewelry. Video 2023 · Is Consciousness a Miracle?…
- Believing in a separate soul is natural but pre-scientific. He prefers the word naturalism to materialism: nothing spooky, no ghosts, no spirits. Video 2026 · Do We Need God? Steven Pinker…2
- To him the explanatory gap is real, but being puzzled is no proof of a miracle: our intuitions need not match our best science. Video 2023 · Is Consciousness a Miracle?…2
The hard problem of consciousness shows that experience cannot be explained by brain activity.
He says the explanatory gap is real, but being puzzled is no proof of a miracle: our intuitions need not match our best science.
Something in us stays the same through childhood, sleep and waking: this witness could survive the death of the brain.
He says consciousness ends when brain activity stops. He would change his mind only if a medium could tell where a dead aunt hid her jewelry.
Defends : The ghost in the machine: a category mistakeMixed : The hard problem of consciousness and zombies
He argues that responsibility does not require uncaused behavior; it only requires that people respond to praise and blame. This is close to compatibilism.
- Responsibility does not require choices with no cause. It requires that people respond to praise and blame, which is exactly what makes holding them accountable useful. Wikipédia 2002 · The Blank Slate
To be responsible, one would have to be the cause of oneself, which is impossible.
He answers that responsibility does not require uncaused choices. It requires that people respond to praise and blame, which is what makes holding them accountable useful.
Values and beliefs must be judged by reason and evidence: "You ought to believe only things that are true, and not to believe things just because they are pleasing narratives". Against Douthat he says reason and well-being can sort what is worth keeping in religion. With Sam Harris he says ethics advances through careful thought and rational reflection, not faith.
- You ought to believe only what is true, not what is a pleasing narrative. He calls this an unnatural cognitive mindset: left to their own devices, people do not fall back on it. Video 2023 · The ultimate guide to…
- An extraordinary claim, such as a miracle, needs extraordinary evidence; he links Sagan's rule to Hume and to Bayesian reasoning. Video 2023 · The ultimate guide to…
- Judge religion by reason and human well-being: then you can keep what is valuable in it and drop what is harmful. Video 2026 · Do We Need God? Steven Pinker…
We have the right to believe when evidence cannot settle a question that matters.
He answers that you ought to believe only what is true, not what is a pleasing narrative. He calls this an unnatural cognitive mindset: left to their own devices, people do not fall back on it.
Science and religion answer different questions, so reason has no say over faith.
No given meaning: "We are born into a pitiless universe", and the universe was not created for a purpose. Meaning and redemption come from human capacities: reason, language, sympathy.
- He describes the universe as pitiless and, according to modern science, not created for a purpose. Video 2018 · Is the world getting better or…2
- Meaning and redemption come from human capacities: reason, language and sympathy, which let us make life better. Video 2018 · Is the world getting better or…
When everything seems vain without God, only faith gives life a meaning.
He says meaning comes from human capacities: reason, language and sympathy let us make life better in a pitiless universe.
He rejects the 'noble savage': people are not born good and corrupted by society. Human nature holds inclinations toward violence and counteracting better angels. On video: "human nature is the problem, but human nature, channeled by Enlightenment norms and institutions, is also the solution"; believing in human nature is not fatalism, because our nature includes the capacity to invent new ideas.
No sourced position yet on: Source of knowledge, Certainty, Status of morality.
On the big questions
Does God exist?Atheism
Atheist since the age of 13; in his words, "a very clearcut atheist and secularist and cosmopolitan".
- The universe was not created for a purpose, according to modern science; seeing purpose everywhere is a natural intuition, not a sign that a creator exists. Video 2026 · Harvard Professor: Tech…
- There is no good evidence for gods, so beliefs about them divide people. For miracles he cites the rule that extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence, as Hume argued. Video 2026 · Do We Need God? Steven Pinker…2
- Against Douthat, he says God cannot give humanity a shared purpose: since the evidence is missing, the idea divides people instead of uniting them. Video 2026 · Do We Need God? Steven Pinker…
Society does better when people see the universe as made for us, with a shared cosmic purpose.
He answers that God cannot give humanity a shared purpose: with no good evidence for gods, the idea divides people instead of uniting them.
Without God, morality has no point of reference outside the norms of one's society: human rights cannot be shown under a microscope.
He answers that there are plenty of secular reasons to be moral: what he demands of others he must accept for himself, and everyone is better off when people help rather than hurt each other. God has nothing to do with it.
Defends : Against miracles
The question on the site: all the argumentsDoes life have a meaning?A meaning to create
No given meaning in a pitiless universe; meaning comes from human reason, language and sympathy.
- He describes the universe as pitiless and, according to modern science, not created for a purpose. Video 2018 · Is the world getting better or…2
- Meaning and redemption come from human capacities: reason, language and sympathy, which let us make life better. Video 2018 · Is the world getting better or…
When everything seems vain without God, only faith gives life a meaning.
He says meaning comes from human capacities: reason, language and sympathy let us make life better in a pitiless universe.
Are we free?Free without absolute free will
Responsibility needs responsiveness to praise and blame, not uncaused choices.
- Responsibility does not require choices with no cause. It requires that people respond to praise and blame, which is exactly what makes holding them accountable useful. Wikipédia 2002 · The Blank Slate
To be responsible, one would have to be the cause of oneself, which is impossible.
He answers that responsibility does not require uncaused choices. It requires that people respond to praise and blame, which is what makes holding them accountable useful.
Is the mind the brain?The mind comes from matter
Rejects the soul as a 'ghost in the machine'.
- Thoughts and feelings are patterns of activity in neural networks; there is no free-floating mind apart from them. Video 2014 · Understanding Human Nature with…2
- When brain activity stops, consciousness ends. He would change his mind only if a medium could tell where a dead aunt hid her jewelry. Video 2023 · Is Consciousness a Miracle?…
- Believing in a separate soul is natural but pre-scientific. He prefers the word naturalism to materialism: nothing spooky, no ghosts, no spirits. Video 2026 · Do We Need God? Steven Pinker…2
- To him the explanatory gap is real, but being puzzled is no proof of a miracle: our intuitions need not match our best science. Video 2023 · Is Consciousness a Miracle?…2
The hard problem of consciousness shows that experience cannot be explained by brain activity.
He says the explanatory gap is real, but being puzzled is no proof of a miracle: our intuitions need not match our best science.
Something in us stays the same through childhood, sleep and waking: this witness could survive the death of the brain.
He says consciousness ends when brain activity stops. He would change his mind only if a medium could tell where a dead aunt hid her jewelry.
Defends : The ghost in the machine: a category mistakeMixed : The hard problem of consciousness and zombies
The question on the site: all the argumentsShould we believe without proof?No belief without evidence
"You ought to believe only things that are true, and not to believe things just because they are pleasing narratives."
- You ought to believe only what is true, not what is a pleasing narrative. He calls this an unnatural cognitive mindset: left to their own devices, people do not fall back on it. Video 2023 · The ultimate guide to…
- An extraordinary claim, such as a miracle, needs extraordinary evidence; he links Sagan's rule to Hume and to Bayesian reasoning. Video 2023 · The ultimate guide to…
- Judge religion by reason and human well-being: then you can keep what is valuable in it and drop what is harmful. Video 2026 · Do We Need God? Steven Pinker…
We have the right to believe when evidence cannot settle a question that matters.
He answers that you ought to believe only what is true, not what is a pleasing narrative. He calls this an unnatural cognitive mindset: left to their own devices, people do not fall back on it.
Science and religion answer different questions, so reason has no say over faith.
Are humans good by nature?Both at once
Human nature is real and complex: it holds inner demons (dominance, revenge, sadism) and better angels (self-control, empathy, moral norms, reason). What changes over history is the balance between them.
- The mind is not a blank slate: human nature exists. Believing in it does not mean fatalism, and a robust understanding of it is a prerequisite to making the world a better place. Video 2014 · Understanding Human Nature with…
- Inside us are both temptations toward violence (dominance, revenge, sadism, exploitation) and brakes on it: self-control, empathy, moral norms and reason. Video 2014 · Understanding Human Nature with…
- Violence is not a thirst for blood that must be slaked, like hunger: it is adjusted by circumstances. So what changes over history is the balance between inner demons and better angels, and institutions and norms can tip it. Video 2014 · Understanding Human Nature with…2
- He reads Hobbes as telling a tragic story rather than a story of bloodthirst: even agents with no strong aggressive urge, but intelligent and a bit self-interested, can slide into a spiral of fear and pre-emptive strikes. Video 2013 · Steven Pinker on Violence
The default state is antagonism: given half the chance we would stab each other, and an instinct for violence runs deep in the species.
He credits Freud for the idea that we must repress antisocial impulses with effort, but says violence is not like hunger: it is adjusted by circumstances, and other parts of human nature inhibit it.
If the mind is evolved neural circuitry, believing in human nature gives people an excuse ("my adaptations made me do it") and undercuts hopes for progress and morality.
He answers that human nature does not logically imply fatalism, and that one only has to look at how the human condition has improved.
Does history have a direction?Progress
Over the long run, violence, poverty and disease have measurably declined. For him this is an empirical result with causes, not a mystical law: it is bumpy, can reverse, and has no cycle or final utopia.
- Whether progress happened is not faith or optimism but a testable hypothesis: life, health, peace, knowledge and freedom can be measured, and when they improve over time that is progress. Video 2018 · Is the world getting better or…
- Plot the data and see whether the line goes up, down or in cycles: he says the idea that humanity is in a low point of a cycle is not supported by the data. The line is never straight, with dips and setbacks along the way. Video 2013 · Steven Pinker on Violence2
- There is no mystical force lifting us upward: every gain has causes, such as sanitation, antibiotics and changes in ideas. That is why progress can be repeated by doing what worked, and why, if those causes are neutralized, we could get stasis or regression. Video 2023 · Is Consciousness a Miracle? |…2
- Peace is better than war over the long run, so people keep what works, much as more and more of the world gets antibiotics or phones: gradually, bumpily, with local reversals. It is not a march to heaven: some violence will never go to zero. Video 2013 · Steven Pinker on Violence2
Seeing progress rests on a Hegelian prejudice that history unfolds toward the better; the data could be read as cycles or repetition.
He says nothing could be further from his view: what happened is a matter of plotting data, not prejudice, and the idea of cycles is not supported by the data. What comes next is a matter of interpretation.
Believing in progress is blind faith in the myth of the onward march of inexorable progress, naive optimism.
He answers that progress is a testable hypothesis, not an optimistic temperament, and that a true optimist believes much better worlds are possible.
Mixed : Liberal democracy, end point of the history of ideasCriticizes : Reason governs history: the cunning of reason
The question on the site: all the argumentsIn their words
What I'm advocating is not materialism, but naturalism. That is, nothing spooky, no ghosts, no spirits, no spooks.
Human nature is the problem, but human nature, channeled by Enlightenment norms and institutions, is also the solution.
You ought to believe only things that are true, and not to believe things just because they are pleasing narratives.
It is a fallacy to say well it's not intuitive to me therefore it's a miracle.
1 more quotes
I do believe that there is such a thing as free will.
How the ideas evolved
Click a step for details1990Language evolved by natural selection
With Paul Bloom he argues that the human language faculty evolved through natural selection. This goes against Noam Chomsky and Stephen Jay Gould, who saw a sudden jump.
1994The Language Instinct
His first popular book argues that language is an evolved instinct, not only something learned.
1997How the Mind Works
He publishes How the Mind Works. He defends the modularity of the mind and the computational theory of mind.
2002The Blank Slate
He attacks three ideas: the blank slate, the noble savage and the ghost in the machine. Science and values must be combined to settle ethical questions.
2011The Better Angels of Our Nature
He argues that violence has declined over millennia, thanks to forces such as the state, commerce, wider sympathy and reason. He says the decline is not guaranteed to continue.
2018Enlightenment Now
He defends reason, science and humanism, and credits them for gains in health and longevity.
2021Rationality
He writes a book on what reason is and why it matters.
2023Is consciousness a miracle? With Sadhguru
In a public conversation with Sadhguru he says consciousness is brain activity and ends with it, and that the explanatory gap is a puzzle, not a miracle. Anaesthesia, he notes, is cause and effect, not prayer.
In their words« that is the person dies their Consciousness goes out of existence »Consciousness ends when brain activity ends; he would believe otherwise only if a medium could tell where Aunt Hilda hid her jewelry. watch
« it is a fallacy to say well it's not intuitive to me therefore it's a miracle »The explanatory gap is real but puzzlement is no proof of a miracle; our intuitions need not match our best science. watch
« progress was not a matter of optimism not a matter of seeing the bright side of seeing the glasses half full but it was an empirical hypothesis that could be tested »Progress is an empirical claim, testable with data, and caused by identifiable things, not a miracle or a force in the universe. watch
2026Do We Need God? Debate with Ross Douthat
He argues that God gives us neither a common purpose, nor knowledge, nor moral clarity, and that reason and human well-being can sort what is worth keeping in religion. He is a naturalist, not a materialist, and would not attribute consciousness to today's AIs.
In their words« the lack of evidence for gods and their doctrines and Messiahs is makes the concept inherently divisive »Against Douthat he says God cannot give a common purpose, because the lack of evidence for gods makes the concept divisive. watch
« What I'm advocating is not materialism, but naturalism. That is, nothing spooky, no ghosts, no spirits, no spooks. »He describes his own position as naturalism rather than materialism: nothing spooky, no ghosts or spirits. watch
« I would not attribute consciousness to the current generation of AIs, I'd feel no compunctions about pulling the plug. »He would not attribute consciousness to today's AI, though a very human-like robot would test our ethical intuitions. watch
The arguments 7
The site's arguments they defend or criticize, and why. Click a title to see the full argument.
He names the 'ghost in the machine' as a false dogma about the mind.
He calls Hobbes undervalued: violence comes from rational, self-interested agents, and a strong state (the Leviathan) reduces it.
In 2023 he says it is "a fallacy to say well it's not intuitive to me therefore it's a miracle"; in 2026 he calls subjective experience "the hardest intellectual problem" because no causal story bridges the objective and the subjective. In 2025 he calls the hard problem 'a head-scratching conceptual enigma' rather than a scientific puzzle, and he sympathizes with Dennett's wish to drop the term. He still says sentience really exists.
He presents Sagan's "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" as an echo of Hume's argument against miracles, and as Bayesian reasoning.
His conclusion that peace and well-being keep spreading sounds a bit like Fukuyama, he says, but the mechanism is different: no mystical end of history, only good ideas that people want to keep.
Against the idea that science is always overturned: "Einstein may have overturned Newton in a sense but Newton's laws of gravity still describe the motion of a baseball". Scientific revolutions keep what worked.
Asked whether his picture of progress hides a Hegelian belief that history moves forward, he says nothing could be further from his view: it rests on plotted data, not a force in history.
Allies and opponents
Daniel DennettClose
He is an ally of Dennett and Dawkins in disputes over adaptationism (how far natural selection explains traits).
Sam HarrisClose
In their debate on science and morality he says they share the view that ethics advances through careful thought and rational reflection.
Thomas HobbesInfluence
Pinker takes Hobbes's view of violence and the Leviathan in Better Angels.
Richard DawkinsClose
Dawkins praised The Blank Slate as a stylish work.
Stephen Jay GouldDisagrees
Gould, who saw language as a sudden jump rather than gradual selection, opposed Pinker's view.
Debates and big conversations
Closest and furthest
how it is computedAmong the philosophers
Among today's voices
Take the Compass: 5 minutes to find out which philosophers you are closest to.
All sources (51)
- Steven Pinker Wikipedia · 2026
- The Blank Slate Wikipedia · 2002
- The Better Angels of Our Nature Wikipedia · 2011
- The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker (Penguin Random House page and Q&A) Penguin Random House · 2003
- Enlightenment Now Wikipedia · 2018
- Pinker's naturalism Closer To Truth (Landscape of Consciousness) · 2025
- Problem of consciousness: Steven Pinker (interview) The Montreal Review · 2025
- In which I diverge from Steve Pinker on free will Why Evolution Is True (quoting a Big Think video) · 2019 *
- Understanding Human Nature with Steven Pinker - Conversations with History YouTube (republication) · 2014
- Do We Need God? Steven Pinker vs. Ross Douthat Debate YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Harvard Professor: Tech Billionaires Are Lying To Us About AI! - Steven Pinker YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Understanding Human Nature with Steven Pinker - Conversations with History YouTube (republication) · 2014
- Harvard Professor: Tech Billionaires Are Lying To Us About AI! - Steven Pinker YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Is Consciousness a Miracle? Steven Pinker and Sadhguru YouTube (republication) · 2023
- Is Consciousness a Miracle? Steven Pinker and Sadhguru YouTube (republication) · 2023
- Do We Need God? Steven Pinker vs. Ross Douthat Debate YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers | Steven Pinker YouTube (republication) · 2018
- Understanding Human Nature with Steven Pinker - Conversations with History YouTube (republication) · 2014
- The ultimate guide to rationality, with Harvard's Steven Pinker | Big Think YouTube (republication) · 2023
- Do We Need God? Steven Pinker vs. Ross Douthat Debate YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Can Science Tell Us What Is Morally Right And Wrong (Pinker and Sam Harris debate) YouTube (republication) · 2018
- Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers | Steven Pinker YouTube (republication) · 2018
- The ultimate guide to rationality, with Harvard's Steven Pinker | Big Think YouTube (republication) · 2023
- Do We Need God? Steven Pinker vs. Ross Douthat Debate YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Do We Need God? Steven Pinker vs. Ross Douthat Debate YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Do We Need God? Steven Pinker vs. Ross Douthat Debate YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Steven Pinker on AI Doom and Consciousness YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Is Consciousness a Miracle? Steven Pinker and Sadhguru YouTube (republication) · 2023
- Is Consciousness a Miracle? Steven Pinker and Sadhguru YouTube (republication) · 2023
- Is Consciousness a Miracle? Steven Pinker and Sadhguru YouTube (republication) · 2023
- Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers | Steven Pinker YouTube (republication) · 2018
- Is Consciousness a Miracle? Steven Pinker and Sadhguru YouTube (republication) · 2023
- Do We Need God? Steven Pinker vs. Ross Douthat Debate YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Is Consciousness a Miracle? Steven Pinker and Sadhguru YouTube (republication) · 2023
- Can Science Tell Us What Is Morally Right And Wrong (Pinker and Sam Harris debate) YouTube (republication) · 2018
- Do We Need God? Steven Pinker vs. Ross Douthat Debate YouTube (republication) · 2026
- Understanding Human Nature with Steven Pinker - Conversations with History YouTube · 2014
- Understanding Human Nature with Steven Pinker - Conversations with History YouTube · 2014
- Understanding Human Nature with Steven Pinker - Conversations with History YouTube · 2014
- Understanding Human Nature with Steven Pinker - Conversations with History YouTube · 2014
- Steven Pinker on Violence YouTube · 2013
- Steven Pinker on Violence YouTube · 2013
- Steven Pinker on Violence YouTube · 2013
- Steven Pinker on Violence YouTube · 2013
- Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers | Steven Pinker YouTube · 2018
- Steven Pinker on Violence YouTube · 2013
- Is Consciousness a Miracle? | Harvard’s Cognitive Scientist Prof. Steven Pinker & Sadhguru YouTube · 2023
- Steven Pinker on Violence YouTube · 2013
- Steven Pinker on Violence YouTube · 2013
- Steven Pinker on Violence YouTube · 2013
- Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers | Steven Pinker YouTube · 2018