Pinker Comment
I couldn’t agree more, Colin (and thanks for the shout-out). As we know, academic fields have their own cultural mores, and the norm that real psychology = experiments (or occasionally computer simulations) is strong. I think it’s gotten worse: when I was an undergrad, every department had a course in history of psychology and a course in “mathematical psychology,” a fading subfield. These courses are rare today.
Hope all’s well,
Steve
From: Colin <cmg124@aol.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2025 7:22 AM
To: Thomas Nagel <nagelhollander@cs.com>; Noam Chomsky <chomsky@mit.edu>; Pinker, Steven <pinker@wjh.harvard.edu>; Richard Dawkins <richard.dawkins1@icloud.com>; Rebecca Goldstein <rebegolds@gmail.com>; Michael Ayers <michael.ayers35@gmail.com>; Simon Blackburn <swb24@cam.ac.uk>; Stephen Neale <sneale@gc.cuny.edu>; Ken Levy <klevy@lsu.edu>; Keith McGinn <keithmcginn@talktalk.net>; Robert Lawrence Kuhn <rlkuhn@icloud.com>; Peter Ludlow <peterjludlow@gmail.com>
Subject:
I’m actually surprised to hear that. I thought psychology had matured beyond the point at which I left it. I thought: if psychology were now the way Steve Pinker does it, I would have stayed!