Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works explores the evolutionary past and socially influenced present state of the human mind: thought, reflex, coordination, cognition, artistic ability. He examines the complex fortunes of natural selection that allowed us to survive and flourish as a species, all as a function of what was in our heads.

Besides challenging conventional wisdom about how we think, cognitive scientist Steven Pinker has a talent for conveying his findings about the brain, language and perception with a clarity and cleverness that has brought him a following outside his field.More About the Author var so = new FlashObject("http://natalie.feedroom.com/barnesandnoble/natoneclip/Player.swf","Player", "240", "252", "8", "#FFFFFF");so.addVariable("skin", "natoneclip");so.addVariable("site", "barnesandnoble");so.addVariable("fr_story", "87e421e0f096cf21a0013c9fa2ab3cadc2cf5201");so.addVariable("hostURL", document.location.href);so.addParam("quality", "high");so.addParam("allowFullScreen", "true");so.addParam("menu", "false");so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");so.write("flashcontent");

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