How Mind Works-Steven Pinker


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How Mind Works
Steven Pinker

            Human mind, as distinct from brain but ineluctably linked to it (like digestion with gut, respiration with lungs), defines and distinguishes our species. We not only reproduce, eat, defecate but think of past and fret over future. We speculate on imaginary situations and how these could have affected our past and might change our future. We think of beauty, we enjoy and create art and literature, we deeply value moral rectitude and philosophise on value and meaning of life. On questioning, an overwhelming majority of people would say that human beings have evolved or were created solely for these functions and these were the goal that directed our evolution. But this is just not true in the light of modern theory of evolution by natural selection as discovered by Charles Darwin. Nature has no preference for creatures that can compose Mozart’s symphonies, write Shakespeare’s verse or meditate on its species’ ethics and behaviour like David Hume. Nature, blindly and without foresight, selects those genes from the present pool which spread most prolifically. Yet this same deceptively simple rule of nature is incontrovertibly responsible for evolution of the unfathomably intricate human mind. Steven Pinker endeavours in this book to explain the origin of human mind in light of evolution and postulate on its working. Evolution only favoured those traits which helped its possessor to survive and reproduce better than its contemporaries. All else, the vast repertoire of human behaviour, skills and characteristics grew from those basic traits and mostly as side effects offering no survival value to the body that exhibited these. If there is a more interesting and awe-inspiring story about the origin of humans, I am yet to hear of it. Attributing the creation of this marvellous mind of man to an omniscient God robs it of every shred of its rightful grandeur.
            Steven Pinker in this mammoth book, both in size and scope, displays unmatched writing skill, wit, astute understanding of the subject matter and an enviable depth of erudition, as he tackles seemingly inexplicable aspects of human mind and makes them accessible to a layman.
            In the first chapter he describes the enormity and complexity of human mind. Citing working of robots, he illustrates intricate complexity of apparently simple and benign tasks like seeing, moving a limb, and common sense, which mind executes ceaselessly every moment of day. He hints about the complex situations that mind has to deal with and illustrates this with the emotion of love, ‘…when it (mind) turns to love, there must be intricate calculations that carry out the peculiar logic of attraction, infatuation, courtship, coyness, surrender, commitment, malaise, philandering, jealousy, desertion and heart break.’
            He devotes one chapter to explaining how the computational model of mind actually works. Emphasis of the book is on evolution of human mind and in a chapter Pinker discusses how evolution endowed humans with a mind. In later chapters he talks about some of the specific attributes of human mind: vision, higher pursuits of mind like science and mathematics, emotions, relationship among kith and kin, parents and children, man and woman and finally love and sex. In the last chapter he discusses evolution of arts, entertainment, humour and religion. His arguments are persuasive, well researched and cogent, his language beautiful and simple and prose lucid and enthralling. He frequently quotes eminent litterateurs, renowned thinkers, humourists and popular fiction and poetry, thus making the discussion lively.
            Occasionally the attempt to explain all the myriad facets of human mind through the path of evolution seems theoretical but evolution is the only tool to understand how we came to acquire the lives that we possess and thus inhabit our tiny patch of universe. This is a thrilling journey of discovery of self, a deeply satisfying endeavour. I say endeavour because the book demands serious attention and application of average reasoning and intellect. It is a must read for all who have ever wondered about the working of this most exquisite organ of human body, The Mind.

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