How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
Published 1997 · 688 pages · 210,000 words · about 14 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Psychology, Science & Nature
How hard is How the Mind Works to read?
How the Mind Works scores 36 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 38 out of 100
- Technical vocabulary from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, but explained with wit.
- Sentence structure: 35 out of 100
- Abstraction: 45 out of 100
- Theoretical frameworks grounded in copious concrete examples.
- Information density: 62 out of 100
- Encyclopedic. Every page packed with evidence, argument, and illustration.
- Narrative indirection: 100 out of 100
- Thematic chapters. Direct argumentation.
- Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
- Analytical. The mind as machine is the governing metaphor.
- Ironic distance: 18 out of 100
- Pinker's wit and combativeness give the prose a sardonic edge.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- Pinker offers confident answers, though he concedes some questions remain open.
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- Eight long chapters covering an enormous range of topics in cognitive science.
How How the Mind Works is regarded
How the Mind Works holds a literary regard score of 57 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.