Final answer:
Steven Pinker argues that understanding human nature is directly related to our values because values are woven into how we live and treat others. Our values guide our thoughts, actions, and interactions with others, and they are influenced by our shared human experiences.
Step-by-step explanation:
Steven Pinker argues that our understanding of human nature is directly tied to our values because values are woven into how we live and relate to others. Our values shape how we make decisions, how we treat others, and the importance we place on certain things. Just as studying an animal's nature can help us understand what is good for it, understanding human nature can help us determine what is good for humans.
Values signify judgments about what is good, worthwhile, or important. They guide our thoughts, actions, and interactions with others. Pinker argues that our understanding of human nature helps us discern these values, which in turn shape our understanding of what is good for humans.
Furthermore, our understanding of human nature is influenced by our shared human experiences and the moral intuitions that have developed throughout our evolutionary history as social mammals. These intuitions, reflective of our common inheritance, play a role in our intuitive judgments of right and wrong, and interact with cultural influences.