Steven Pinker - cognitive psychologist, popular science author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist – is widely considered to be one of the foremost thinkers of modern times...
"Why people swear is a puzzle of language that serves as a window into a fascinating part of the mind. Not the rational, cognitive, combinatorial, idea forming part but the much more primitive, emotional, affective part. And when you stub your toe and the topic of your conversation turns to theology or sexuality or excretion, that’s saying something else about the human mind – namely that it’s built on some very ancient mammalian circuits, in particular what physiologists call the ‘rage circuit'. Anyone who has ever sat down on their pet cat is familiar with the rage circuit. Namely if some misfortune befalls you, if you are suddenly confined or injured, you erupt in a furious struggle, accompanied by a sudden loud nose. Presumably it evolved to intimidate or startle an attacker, which is why your cat does it. In humans, we still have that circuit, but its output is piped through the language system – so instead of yowling, we express some aggressive intent involving unpleasant subject matter that ordinarily we inhibit ourselves from saying."
"Why people swear is a puzzle of language that serves as a window into a fascinating part of the mind"
Steven Pinker – cognitive psychologist, popular science author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist – is widely considered to be one of the foremost thinkers of modern times. Famous for a number of controversial pronouncements, such as his oft-contested theory that language acquisition in humans is the product of an innate faculty of mind, as well as for his part in a very public spat with amateur social scientist and thinker Malcolm Gladwell, Pinker cuts a dash as one of science’s most exhilarating figures.
This month saw Pinker at the Wellcome Collection in London, where, in conversation with philosopher AC Grayling, he talked through a vast array of his pet subjects, ranging magisterially from a discussion of language as a route to understanding the nature versus nurture debate, the idea of the conscious mind as "spin doctor, not commander-in-chief", to the subject of his latest book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, surely set to cause more debate with its hypothesis that violence in the world is patently in decline. He also delved deeper into the darker, more primal elements of the human psyche; offering AnOther a fascinating insight into what prompts the furious or frightened person to call on base profanities in times of stress.
Steven Pinker and AC Grayling were talking as part of the BBC World Service programme Exchanges on the Frontier. The series runs from Saturday, November 26 on BBC World Service, and the Steven Pinker programme transmits on December 24, at 10pm.
Text by Tish Wrigley
