More compelling are the differences in sensibilities: the romance so much more restrained, the hero completely without roguishness.
"I think it's a real change in sensibilities, but the question is whether the Spanish people are willing to believe them," said Jeff Miley, an expert on Basque nationalism at Cambridge University.
Pinker gives the credit for this progress – "and if it isn't progress, I don't know what is" – to explicit political arguments and changes in sensibilities that began during the 18th century, the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment.
My wife and I have often speculated that the literacy crisis that Gov. George W. Bush of Texas mentions in his literacy proposals (front page, March 29) arises from a cultural shift in sensibilities.
PG. '50 First Dates' This is a struggle in sensibilities between Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, whose production companies collaborated on this romantic comedy about a marine veterinarian (Mr. Sandler) who becomes infatuated with a woman who suffers from short-term memory loss (Ms. Barrymore).
