The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature,   ISBN:9780143114246

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I suspect that this book was designed for those who need to be seen in public reading a book with an intellectual looking title in big, bold letters. I promise you, more thought went into the cover of this book than went into it's 37,000 pages of drivel.

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Fantastic work. Provides us with insight into the best that science now knows about thought. Rather than leading to materialist determinism, this work honestly describes the roles of nature, nurture and "we don't know". The most interesting book I've read in a few years

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Each of the chapters of the book is interesting in its own right, but the book does not really form a coherent whole. It seems as if the author had chosen randomly several linguistic and other topics that interested him and in a final chapter had tried to unite all the information contained in the various chapters to form a conclusion as to how all the topics reveal the way the human mind works.

Very interesting is the chapter relating to the meanings of verbs and the subtleties in semantics that distinguish various seemingly synonymous verbs, like pour and fill. These differences have to do with how we perceive an object as being a subject or an object (thereby determining its relative position), with intentionality or purpose, with causality and temporality, with agency (responsibility), etc. These differences in our perception modes also permeate our laws, since a clear distinction is made between intentional and accidental deeds, which is documented with several interesting examples. Most languages exhibit these semantic differences, so this probably reveals the existence of preset categories in our minds (like the "a priori" categories of Kant).

The book explains Mr. Pinker's point of view regarding opposing theories related to innate knowledge of words or concepts (nature) and absolute subjectivism (nurture). The first theory proposes that each individual is born with a concept for everything (he just needs to "discover" that he already knows the concept when required), while the second theory proposes that concepts and meaning are assigned freely by each individual to the things he encounters. In this second theory, no word could mean the same to two different people. Mr. Pinker chooses to accept a priori categories or "modes of knowing" into which and from which all our knowledge is shaped.

The chapter on "politeness", specially in the way we ask for things we want is also extremely interesting. Here some of the basic rules of efficient communication, namely truthfulness and clarity, are relegated to second term in order not to appear commanding and rude.

This is all in all a very good book, at times difficult because of its emphasis on grammar. I am looking forward to reading Mr. Pinker's other books which are seemingly more focused on their specific topics.

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heavy going but if you are interested in the development of language and wish to have an alternative to the chomsky theory then this book is interesting and absorbing.

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Steven Pinker's enthusiasm about language comes through everywhere in this book - which is a good thing, because the subject matter itself is dense and complex. This combination results in a curious reading experience: Pinker's lively style, many anecdotes and extreme lucidity pull you forward in the text, but the difficulty of the questions he raises could stump you for some time. He explores many linguistic theories in such depth that readers without a particular interest in the field may, frankly, get lost or find the book too abstract, despite Pinker's numerous attempts to ground his discussions in reality. Therefore, while this is a fine book, getAbstract recommends it primarily to patient readers who have a strong interest in language and philosophy. Bring along an open mind and a sense of humor, since Pinker explores language practices - such as obscenities and insults - that may provoke emotional responses.