Rating: 
Summary: Great Explanation of the Mysteries of the Mind
Review: I became interested in how the mind works as part of my research into the topic of the conscious web. I asked the question "what is consciousness?" and I figured out Pinker's book was a good place to start. Ray Kurzweil also quoted Pinker frequently in Kurzweil's book "The Age of Spiritual Machines" which I also loved. So although I just started with a single question I learned a lot more then I thought I would. I really appreciated Pinker's efforts to explain the mind as a series of interconnected processing units, where each processing unit needed to be understood from an evolutionary basis. He calls this "Natural Computation" and the concepts are very useful in explaining many aspects of the mind. I learned not just about models of consciousness being a model of the real world in our own brain where we exist in that model but also about topics like raising kids, dealing with family issues, emotions and the biological/evolutionary basis of love.The book has been researched very well. This book has excellent notes and a large list of references for further reading. My only criticism about this book is that Pinker sometimes draws on an unnecessarily large vocabulary, making his points difficult to understand in some parts. A little stronger editing might have helped here. How often do you use the word "palimpsest" in ordinary conversation? This is good if you want to expand your vocabulary but painful at times. But all-in-all Pinker has done a great job explaining how the mind works. The title is correct.
Rating: 
Summary: Do Humans Evolve or Develop?
Review: Since the author is from MIT, I thought this book would be a good book for those engineers who know their responsibilities to God. Instead, the book is promoting atheism, evolutionary theory, and artificial intelligence. I am a retired electrical engineer from Johns Hopkins and the space program but now believe that efforts to achieve artificial intelligence will waste the time of many engineers. Creating robots will not produce artificial intelligence. Robots can only free more humans so they can improve their minds by increasing their intelligence.
I got to page 24 and then scanned the rest of th book stopping only occasionally. On page 24, the author says "... the mind is not the brain but what the brain does." This means that "natural selection" makes the mind metaphysically through DNA molecules and the brain. How silly this idea is after I recovered from brain damage as a result of a blood blockage of the carotid artery. My doctor said I was lucky. How silly he was. But, he did not know how I used my mind to rebuild my brain with a single exercise that reunifies my five senses using my computer solitaire game. It took me only two years to recover the language function that was damaged.
In a book that I am writing now, I describe in detail how my mind made this recovery and repaired my brain. In this book, I also present a proof of God and present a new world theory that was initiated by Nicholas of Cusa and was made more complete by Johannes Kepler, Gottfried Leibniz, Georg Cantor and me. Obviously, this theory rejects atheism, evolutionary theory, and artificial intelligence.
Since people develop and do not evolve, the author might want to use the great skills he developed on robots to help other people develop. He might also consider to help those funding governmental agencies that have become enslaved to the unconstitutional rulings of the US Supreme Court that separated God and State as well as Religion and State. The founders speak of Laws of Nature and Nature's God in the Declaration of Independence. They spoke of two different sets of laws. The proof above is one of many laws of God. We only need to search for them. These two laws show that our founders rejected the ungodly Enlightenment movement because th Enlightenment was interested only in finding laws of Nature.
Rating: 
Summary: Evolutionary psychology?
Review: why do we have friends? we all need someone we can relate to, share feelings with, and someone who will stick closer than a broher. What is the purpose of war? War has no purpose and really gains nothing, but creates tension and the feeling and wanting for revenge. War is illogical. Why does every culture have religion and marriage? This is one of the most theorized questions eve and each time they try to give an alternative answer to the Biblical answer, they create evn more unanswered questions. Why is this so? God intended it his way. Men have rejected God, and decided to make their own descisions, and we've failed each time, but just like an adolescent teen, we will keep disobeying to prove our parent, or God, wrong and that we are right and that we don't need him. Why do men seem to value virginity in the women they are marrying? They don't want a "used" women, they want something untouched. Why are parents very protective of their children? Because you love and have an emotional connection with them, and you'd rather die then have anything harm your children. Why are brothers and sisters rivals? Both strive for attention and approval of the parents, and the other is a rival, so both try to out do each other to gain attention and parental approval.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent book, although some sections ramble a bit.
Review: Steven Pinker's book makes an attempt to describe "how the mind works." But does he succeed? Pinker does not discuss the mind at length in this book and offers few revoluationary theories on how the mind actually works. Instead, the title serves as a useful way of obtaining the reader's attention, which makes sense. In reality, this book is about evolutionary psychology, why people think the way they do, and the advantages that have accrued to our ancestors for believing and thinking the way they did then -- and the way we continue to this day.
One of the best areas of Pinker's book is his discussion of evolutionary psychology. In that section, Pinker answers a lot of important time-old questions, such as why do we have friends? What is the purpose of war? Why does every culture have religion and marriage? Why do men seem to value virginity in the women they are marrying? Why are parents very protective of their children? Why are brothers and sisters rivals?
Rating:
Summary: A good shot at a moving target...
Review: How does a bicycle work? Perhaps that's too complicated since it needs a rider to be in a state of working. Then, how does a windmill work? Yes it needs wind, but let's take the wind for granted here. Also, let's lay aside the knowledge there are different types of windmills all designed by different people. Let's assume we know one when we see one. So how does it work? We are immediately confronted by style and method and purpose. There are many ways to describe the workings of a windmill. Is any one enough? Are all descriptions necessary for truth? And what do we mean by "work" anyway?
If thinking about a relatively simple mechanical device raises so many questions, how many more are raised by thinking about the thinking thing itself - the mind? Why does thinking about how the mind works make predicting the lottery each week seem plausible? Why is "mind" so hard to pin down?
Kudos to Steven Pinker for taking this on in such a pleasurable, readable, thought provoking way. As he says in the preface, this account is a bird's eye view of how the mind works, a survey, It is both for the specialist and the thoughtful layperson.
As a survey the book is broad but the access to it is specific, Mr. Pinker says, "...the mind is a system of organs of computation designed by natural selection to solve the problems faced by our evolutionary ancestors..." He then elaborates adroitly for the next 565 pages. This book is engaging and thought provoking. I recommend it to you. Since you read this far in a review, I am sure the book itself will be of interest to you.
I wrote much marginalia in my copy of this book, often taking a different position and questioning assumptions. My one outstanding argument with Mr. Pinker comes from a statement he makes near the end of the book, "Psychologists and neuroscientists don't study their own minds; they study someone else's." In the margin I wrote, "Too bad, they should." By this I meant that eastern traditions of contemplation, reflection, and meditation provide tools for studying the mind. These tools would be a welcome addition to western science.
Rating: 
Summary: poor on many levels
Review: The author is neither an expert in neuroscience or philosophy of mind and it shows. His good ideas are not original and many of his original ideas are just wrong. I tried one of his examples out on my boss a professor at Yale and he came to the very conclusion that Pinker says we would not come to while he is trying to illustrate how our minds do not work. So much for that. Also many examples and ideas stollen from other arthors. If you want to learn neuroscience get a good text. If you are interested in the mind try Dennet and Chalmers, philosophers. This psychologist isn't going to help you dig very deep.
The book is also poorly written and edited.
Rating:
Summary: ERUDITE AND FUNNY
Review: Pinker is one of the brightest intelligences of our days. He explain the most number of facts with the less number of assumptions. Some of his conclusions can be shocking at first, particularly for those in contact with " the left wing" but Pinker's arguments are compelling and you will end convinced that science cannot be tied by politics and that our ethic and moral values are safe.
It was an adventure of the thinking. I read it twice for practicing my reading of English.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: with simple, familiar language MIT professor Pinker delves into how the mind evolved and how it works. Of special interest to me were the parallells he drew between computer code (logic) and brain tasks. Easy to read (considering the material) and right on as far as factual material goes, 5 stars for me. He could have cut the book down to ~500 pages or so (i struggled through most of the chapter on perception and finally just skipped on) but overall a great book.
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