my cart my cart |

Penguin.com (usa)
About the Book
Table of Contents
Praise
About Steven Pinker
Books by Steven Pinker

The Stuff of Thought
Language as a Window into Human Nature
Professor Steven Pinker - Author
$29.95
add to cart view cart
Book: Hardcover | 5.98 x 9.01in | 512 pages | ISBN 9780670063277 | 11 Sep 2007 | Viking Adult | 18 - AND UP
Additional Formats:
Paperback: $16.00
eBook - Adobe reader: $16.00
eBook - Microsoft Reader: $16.00
eBook - eReader: $16.00
Audiobook - Downloadable Audiobook - Abridged: $39.95
The Stuff of Thought
New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker possesses that rare combination of scientific aptitude and verbal eloquence that enables him to provide lucid explanations of deep and powerful ideas. His previous books—including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Blank Slate—have catapulted him into the limelight as one of today’s most important and popular science writers.

Now, in The Stuff of Thought, Pinker marries two of the subjects he knows best: language and human nature. The result is a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. What does swearing reveal about our emotions? Why does innuendo disclose something about relationships? Pinker reveals how our use of prepositions and tenses taps into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and how our nouns and verbs speak to our notions of matter. Even the names we give our babies have important things to say about our relations to our children and to society.

With his signature wit and style, Pinker takes on scientific questions like whether language affects thought, as well as forays into everyday life—why is bulk e-mail called spam and how do romantic comedies get such mileage out of the ambiguities of dating? The Stuff of Thought is a brilliantly crafted and highly readable work that will appeal to fans of readers of everything from The Selfish Gene and Blink to Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

The Stuff of Thought Preface

1. Words and Worlds
2. Down the Rabbit Hole
3. Fifty Thousand Innate Concepts (and Other Radical Theories of Language and Thought)
4. Cleaving the Air
5. The Metaphor Metaphor
6. What's in a Name?
7. The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television
8. Games People Play
9. Escaping the Cave

Notes
References
Index
“Pinker is a star, and the world of science is lucky to have him.”
—Richard Dawkins


Email Alerts

To keep up-to-date, input your email address, and we will contact you on publication

Please alert me via email when:

The author releases another book

   
Send this page to a friend

Penguin 2.0

Download the Penguin App for iPhones and get exclusive excerpts and access to the blog, podcast and more. Click here for information.

Penguin Gifts & Gear

Penguin Gifts & Gear

T-shirts, tote bags, gift sets and more.

Get Your Gear » Here