Wednesday, October 20, 1999
3:00 - 4:30, Logan Hall, Room 17

How the mind works

STEVEN PINKER
Director, Center for Cogniture Neuroscience, MIT

Why do fools fall in love? Why does a man's annual salary, on average, increase $600 with each inch of his height? How do optical illusions function as windows on the human soul? Join us to hear Steven Pinker, MIT scientist and best-selling author of "How the Mind Works" and "The Language Instinct," argue, among other things, that the key to understanding ourselves is Darwin plus canny computer programs. Dr. Pinker is internationally recognized for his work on the nature of language and its relation to the mind and brain.

Cosponsored by the Penn Humanities Forum, Lief Lectureship in English, and The Institute for Research in Cognitive Science.