The Psychology, Biology, and History of Violence

"Contrary to the popular view that we are living in extraordinarily violent times, rates of violence at all scales have been in decline over the course of history.

I explore how this decline could have happened despite the existence of a constant human nature by differentiating the brain systems that incline us toward violence and those that inhibit us from violence."

Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill University (Canada) and his Ph.D. from Harvard University (USA). Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford University and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his ten books – including The Language Instinct. How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, and The Sense of Style: A Writing Manual for the 21st Century. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, and writes frequently for The New York Times, The Guardian, and other publications. His latest book is called Enlightenment

Die Ernst Mayr Lecture ist eine von der BBAW und dem Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin gestiftete Vorlesungsreihe auf dem Gebiet der Biowissenschaften. Mit der Vorlesung soll die Entwicklung des biologischen Denkens von führenden Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern verschiedener Disziplinen einer breiteren Öffentlichkeit vermittelt werden. Die Reihe bezieht sich damit auf eines der Hauptwerke des Ornithologen und Evolutionsbiologen Ernst Mayr (1904 – 2005), „The Growth of Biological Thought“.