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Steven Pinker || Why Rationality Matters

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Oct 14, 2021

Guest

Steven Pinker

In a captivating discussion, Steven Pinker, a renowned Harvard psychologist and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, explores the essence of rationality. He dives into its connection to truth and the trade-offs in decision-making. The conversation reveals the limits of strategic irrationality and the challenge of navigating societal beliefs. Pinker also highlights the critical relationship between rationality and social justice, urging listeners to adapt rational tools for greater good, while pondering the meanings of acceptable fiction in our changing times.

01:05:40

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ANECDOTE

Misunderstood Political Stance

Pinker shares being labeled "far-right" despite being a major Democratic Party contributor at Harvard.
This anecdote illustrates the polarization in academia, where deviations from rigid orthodoxies are misconstrued as right-wing.

insights

INSIGHT

Strategic Irrationality

Ignorance, powerlessness, and even irrationality can be strategically advantageous in certain situations like negotiations.
Schelling's "madman theory" illustrates how unpredictable behavior can deter opponents but carries risks if both sides use it.

insights

INSIGHT

Taboo Thoughts

Certain thoughts are deemed taboo, even hypothetically, showing the limitations of pure rationality.
While seemingly irrational, judging people by their thoughts helps assess character, especially when choosing allies.

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The Complexities of Rationality

02:30 • 19min

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Navigating Rationality and Social Justice

21:57 • 3min

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Navigating Political Orthodoxy in Academia

25:22 • 4min

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The Paradox of Rationality and Emotion

29:02 • 25min

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Navigating Morality and Truth

54:24 • 13min

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The Vital Role of Rationality in Today's World

01:06:58 • 3min

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The Blank Slate

Steven Pinker

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The Sense of Style

Steven Pinker

In 'The Sense of Style', Steven Pinker offers a practical and entertaining guide to writing, emphasizing the importance of clarity, empathy, and coherence. He challenges traditional usage guides by applying insights from linguistics and cognitive science to improve writing skills. The book is filled with examples of effective and ineffective prose, providing readers with tools to enhance their writing style.

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• Mentioned in 102 episodes

The better angels of our nature

Why Violence Has Declined

Steven Pinker

In this book, Steven Pinker presents a detailed argument that violence has significantly decreased over the course of human history. He uses extensive data and statistical analysis to demonstrate this decline in various domains, including military conflict, homicide, genocide, torture, and the treatment of children, homosexuals, animals, and racial and ethnic minorities. Pinker identifies four key human motivations – empathy, self-control, the moral sense, and reason – as the 'better angels' that have oriented humans away from violence and towards cooperation and altruism. He also discusses historical forces such as the rise of the state (which he terms 'Leviathan'), the spread of commerce, the growth of feminist values, and the expansion of cosmopolitanism, which have contributed to this decline in violence.

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How the Mind Works

Steven Pinker

In this book, Steven Pinker delves into the workings of the human mind, addressing questions such as why we are rational yet often irrational, how we perceive the world, and the origins of emotions, social interactions, and higher cognitive functions. Pinker synthesizes insights from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and other fields to explain how the mind evolved to solve the problems faced by our ancestors. He discusses topics like vision, emotion, social behavior, and the mysteries of consciousness, arguing for a computational theory of mind and an adaptationist approach to evolution.

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The Constitution of Knowledge

Jonathan Rauch

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Strategy of Conflict

Thomas Schelling

Written against the backdrop of the nuclear arms race in the late 1950s, this book sets forth Thomas Schelling's vision of game theory as a unifying framework for the social sciences. It explores areas where progress has been least satisfactory, including negotiations, war and threats of war, criminal deterrence, extortion, and tacit bargaining. Schelling's analysis highlights enlightening similarities between various conflict scenarios, such as maneuvering in limited war and in a traffic jam, and deterring adversaries versus one’s own children. His work emphasizes the importance of strategic commitments, the credibility of uncertain retaliation, and the exploitation of potential force rather than its application. The book has significantly influenced conflict resolution and the development of game theory across the social sciences.

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Enlightenment Now

Steven Pinker

In 'Enlightenment Now', Steven Pinker presents a comprehensive argument that the values of the Enlightenment—reason, science, and humanism—have been instrumental in the progress of human society. He challenges the prevailing pessimism in modern discourse by presenting empirical evidence that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise globally. Pinker uses data and graphs to illustrate improvements in various aspects of human life, such as increased life expectancy, reduced child and maternal mortality, and advancements in medicine and technology. He also addresses the psychological biases that lead people to underestimate these improvements and emphasizes the importance of continuing to uphold Enlightenment ideals to ensure further progress.

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The Stuff of Thought

Language as a Window into Human Nature

Steven Pinker

In *The Stuff of Thought*, Steven Pinker delves into the intricacies of language to uncover insights about human nature. He examines how words reflect our thoughts and emotions, discussing topics such as metaphors, taboos, and the relationship between language and thought. Pinker argues that language is a window into human nature, revealing both universal and culturally specific aspects of human cognition.

Today it’s great to have Steven Pinker on the podcast. Dr. Pinker is the Johnstone professor of psychology at Harvard University. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and the winner of many awards for his research, teaching, and books. He’s been elected to the National Academy of Science, and named as one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People”, and one of Foreign Policy’s “100 Leading Global Thinkers”. His books include How the Mind Works, The Blank State, The Stuff of Thought, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, Enlightenment Now, and most recently, Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. In this episode, I talk to Steven about the definition of rationality, how it relates to truth, and how it’s different from logic. We also discuss the trade-offs in decision making, the limited usefulness of strategic irrationality, the boundaries of socially acceptable fiction, and why people have weird beliefs among other things.

Website: stevenpinker.com
Twitter: @sapinker

Topics

01:02 Must we always follow reason?

03:34 Steven’s definition of rationality

05:24 Tension between conflicting goals

08:31 What is truth?

13:12 When to apply logic or rationality

23:14 There can be no trade-off between rationality and justice

25:35 Politicizing knowledge and research

29:24 Strategic irrationality has limits

36:13 Taboo trade-offs, heretical counterfactuals, and forbidden base rates

42:04 The changing norms of acceptable fiction

45:56 Why rationality is cool

49:39 The costs of decision making

55:54 Progress came from utilitarian reasoning

57:52 "The pandemic of poppycock"

01:01:23 Expressive rationality: morally empowering beliefs

01:05:26 Bayesian reasoning

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