How the Mind Works

By: Steven Pinker

Narrated by: Mel Foster

Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

In this delightful, acclaimed best seller, one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists tackles the workings of the human mind. What makes us rational—and why are we so often irrational? How do we see in three dimensions? What makes us happy, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sexually aroused? Why do we fall in love? And how do we grapple with the imponderables of morality, religion, and consciousness?

How the Mind Works synthesizes the most satisfying explanations of our mental life from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and other fields to explain what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact, enjoy the arts, and contemplate the mysteries of life. This new edition of Pinker’s bold and buoyant classic is updated with a new foreword by the author.

©2011 Steven Pinker (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Undeniably brilliant.” ( Newsday)

"Big, brash, and a lot of fun.” ( Time)

“Hugely entertaining.... always sparkling and provoking.” ( Wall Street Journal)

Enjoyed the blank slate more, but a top book to understanding how humanity is not and is very special at the same time.

Great read. I was more engaged with his book, The Blank Slate. But still found this book very informative. Just not as polished. I would really have liked Steven to have gone into the specifics of many of the studies he quoted. I felt like he stopped short of truly explaining “how” an experiment or study showed what it did. Hopefully someday he does an update or expanded version of the same subject.

Excellent, but a difficult listen.

What made the experience of listening to How the Mind Works the most enjoyable?

Pinker answers a lot of questions about how and why people think the way they do. As always, he doesn't just make assertions, he backs everything up by explaining the state of the research and the ideas of the researchers in the field (even when those ideas are different from his). It's a much easier read than actual research papers, and has wit and good story telling to leven the large doses of information, but it's not easy to follow when listening. It requires a lot of concentration or you can do what I did and just listen to everything twice, sometimes three times, until you get it.

If you consider yourself an intellectual, you'll want to be familiar with Stephen Pinker's work. The Better Angels of our Nature, and The Blank Slate are easier to pick up just listening once so I would recommend one of those as a place to start.

This book was written more than 10 years ago. It's holding up very well though and an afterword written only a couple of years ago is included which explains how recent research relates to the book.

Essential book on the mind. Challenging listen.

Would you listen to How the Mind Works again? Why?

My approach is to take notes/bookmark throughout the book the first time, so I can refer to certain sections in the future.

Definitely has enough info in this book to be a textbook, but fortunately it is a more enjoyable read.

What other book might you compare How the Mind Works to and why?

Steven Pinker's other masterpiece "The Blank Slate" is still my favorite non-fiction. "How the Mind Works" is a more technical and challenging read/listen, but both are highly recommended based on their wealth of researched facts and arguments.

Any additional comments?

Probably the best way to absorb "How the Mind Works" is to read it. I found myself rewinding multiple times to re-listen to the more technical parts. Be prepared to exercise your mind, and you will be rewarded.

For an easier listen, "The Blank Slate" is just as informative; it is more on societal impact of our understanding on the mind rather than the technical mind mechanisms explored in this book.

Intresting book Exhaustive and introspective.

Exhaustive read, introspective perspective. I Liked the narration. It was informative. It requires atleast couple of reads to understand and ponder . At one read it feel everything on peripheral level.

👍

There is a lot there going to "play it again sam" more to come shortly

A mind bending and Earth shaking book

A must read for anyone who wants to know how and why minds and really people do the things they do.

a joyful journey

a great book everyone should read it easy to understand. if you believe in logic and reason you can't deny this books claims.

a good starting point for critical thinking

it is a nice book, kind of a collection of ideas and theories, but I was expecting to get more information on neuroscience and more biological ways of mind's work, instead there were many social theories, common knowledge and semi-deep dives into a couple of topics. Maybe this was a mistake to read this book after The Selfish Gene, since a lot of ideas and even examples are from there. nevertheless this book led me to start digging deeper in some topics and theories. worth reading.

A helpful synthesis

A helpful synthesis of findings across the cognitive sciences. I feel a little more humble knowing my brain is solving very difficult problems with finite resources.

Personal Opinion: Surprisingly not interesting

I love Steven Pinker but for some reason, this book didn't charm me. Some stories were interesting, but somewhere along the way, I quit listening.