Can We Build a More Rational World?
Steven Pinker believes that human beings are better off than ever before in human history. A world-renowned linguist, Pinker has dedicated his career to unveiling the ways in which we express our human nature through our language, behaviors, and beliefs. In an era often plagued by fatalism, Pinker maintains a radical and unwavering dedication to his belief in humanity's steady improvement.
In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Steven Pinker sit down to discuss why we need to look to "nature" as well as "nurture" to understand the human condition, how to build institutions untainted by human biases, and whether human beings are inherently irrational.
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Podcast production by John T. Williams and Rebecca Rashid.
Can We Build a More Rational World?
Yascha Mounk and Steven Pinker. Many thanks -- valuable discussion.
When I lived in New York we often had big sit down dinner parties around my cutting table (I was a fashion designer). They were really fun because people were from all places and enjoyed talking -- so much so that getting the food onto the table was almost an interruption. I played a game with myself by identifying those guests who were strong in mathematics and those not -- I spotted an amazing correlation. I give you an example exchange.
"Is it true that Volvo's are really safer than other cars? or is it simply a sales pitch?"
"Absolutely it's true! My uncle in his Volvo went over a bank and rolled over 4 times before hitting the bottom -- emerged completely unscathed"
Languages were where he excelled.
What is apparent now, as then, is a confusion of evidence as in facts, statistics, probabilities etc. with the anecdotal. That they are interchangeable -- and they are not. In the same way reporting and opinion often struggle even in reliable news outlets to be keep separate, but the free-for-all of much online doesn't have those rails as you point out. Throw some emotion into all this and you have apples, oranges and avocados all mixed.
A brief and wonderful tour of the key ideas of one of my beloved public thinkers! I eagerly await the upcoming book on Rationality. It may be the umpteenth book I have read on the broad subject, but I suspect Prof. Pinker will serve up plenty of new wine with the old in a reliably readable bottle.