SocraticGadfly: Steven Pinker, the David Brooks of ev psych?

February 12, 2005

Steven Pinker, the David Brooks of ev psych?

Pharyngula’s post on “a delicately dissected Pinker”, which led to Echidne’s link, flipped the “on” switch in my brain that Pinker is the David Brooks of evolutionary psychology popularizers.

He takes bits of anecdotal data, presents them as incontrovertible overarching conclusions, paints with a broad and caricaturizing brush. You can’t tell which one I’m describing, can you?

Bobos the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your vacuous self-delusions of grandeur.

See Pinker’s original column in The New Republic supporting the general thrust of Harvard President Lawrence Summers’ comments on women in the sciences here.

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