How the Mind Works

How the Mind Works is a 1997 book by the Canadian-American cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker. In it, the author tries to explain, in evolutionary terms, some of the poorly understood functions and quirks of the human mind. He draws heavily on the paradigm of evolutionary psychology articulated by John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, and covers subjects such as vision, emotion, feminism and the meaning of life. Pinker argues for both a computational theory of mind and a neo-Darwinist, adaptationist view of evolution, which he sees as the central components of evolutionary psychology. He criticizes difference feminism, arguing that scientific research shows that women and men differ little or not at all in their moral reasoning. The book was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Jerry Fodor, regarded as one of the fathers of the computational theory of mind, criticized the book in a piece titled The Mind Doesn't Work That Way. Fodor accepted that the computational theory is part of the truth about cognition but doubted that it could account for most of the story, and he found Pinker's optimism unwarranted. Pinker replied in Mind & Language, accusing Fodor of attacking straw man positions. Daniel Levitin also objected to Pinker's description of music as "auditory cheesecake" and rebutted his arguments in This Is Your Brain on Music (2006).