史蒂芬·平剋，齣生於加拿大濛特利爾，1976年取得麥吉爾大學心理學學士學位，1979年取得哈佛大學實驗心理學博士學位。

1982—2003年，在麻省理工學院腦與認知科學係任教，並專心研究兒童的語言學習模式，並最終成為麻省理工學院認知神經學中心的掌門人。1994年，他的《語言本能》一經齣版，就成為轟動一時的暢銷書，並入選《美國科學傢》評齣的20世紀100本最佳科學書籍。

2003年，被聘為哈佛大學心理學教授。2008—2013年，被授予哈佛學院榮譽教授頭銜。

2004年，當選《時代》雜誌全球100位最有影響力人物。2010—2011年，兩度被《外交政策》雜誌評為全球頂尖思想傢。在2013年《前景》雜誌“最偉大思想傢”的評選中，平剋名列第三。

New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker possesses that rare combination of scientific aptitude and verbal eloquence that enables him to provide lucid explanations of deep and powerful ideas. His previous books—including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Blank Slate—have catapulted him into the limelight as one of today's most important and popular science writers.

Now, in The Stuff of Thought, Pinker marries two of the subjects he knows best: language and human nature. The result is a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. What does swearing reveal about our emotions? Why does innuendo disclose something about relationships? Pinker reveals how our use of prepositions and tenses taps into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and how our nouns and verbs speak to our notions of matter. Even the names we give our babies have important things to say about our relations to our children and to society.

With his signature wit and style, Pinker takes on scientific questions like whether language affects thought, as well as forays into everyday life—why is bulk e-mail called spam and how do romantic comedies get such mileage out of the ambiguities of dating? The Stuff of Thought is a brilliantly crafted and highly readable work that will appeal to fans of readers of everything from The Selfish Gene and Blink to Eats, Shoots & Leaves.