Art works because it appeals to certain faculties of the mind. Music depends on details of the auditory system, painting and sculpture on the visual system. Poetry and literature depend on language. – Steven Pinker
There has to be innate circuitry that does the learning, that creates the culture, that acquires the culture, and that responds to socialization. – Steven Pinker
As many political writers have pointed out, commitment to political equality is not an empirical claim that people are clones. – Steven Pinker
Many artists and scholars have pointed out that ultimately art depends on human nature. – Steven Pinker
I never thought Id be doing poetry books. I never really studied poetry. But the first one I did was after my mother died, and I realized that people sort of think and talk about her style and fashion, but in fact, what made her the person she was was really her love of reading and ideas. – Caroline Kennedy
Traditionally, scientists have treated the laws of physics as simply given, elegant mathematical relationships that were somehow imprinted on the universe at its birth, and fixed thereafter. Inquiry into the origin and nature of the laws was not regarded as a proper part of science. – Paul Davies