Steven Pinker on rationality and its limits
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As you may have guessed from our strange spelling, UnHerd aims to do two things: to push back against the herd mentality with new and bold thinking, and to provide a platform for otherwise unheard ideas, people and places. We think this approach is more needed than ever. Societies across the West are divided and stuck, and the established media is struggling to make sense of what’s happening. The governing ideologies of the past generation are too often either unquestioningly defended or rejected wholesale. It’s easy and safe to be in one or other of these two camps – defensive liberal or angry reactionary - but UnHerd is trying to do something different, and harder. We want to be bold enough to identify those things that have been lost, as well as gained, by the liberal world order of the past thirty years; but we strive to be always thoughtful rather than divisive. Welcome to UnHerd. We hope you find something that makes you think again. https://linktr.ee/unherdtv
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Freddie Sayers meets Steven Pinker. Listen to the podcast version here: https://shows.acast.com/lockdowntv-with-freddie-sayers/steven-pinker Do we live in a rational world? For all the advances humanity has made over the years and centuries, it is difficult to escape the feeling that we live in irrational times. Or so leading psychologist Steven Pinker argues in his new book ‘Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters’. From cancel culture to online conspiracy theories, the Harvard Professor argues that we are forgetting how to reason and think clearly — two vital tools for the flourishing of mankind. But is being irrational necessarily a bad thing? Are there certain scenarios in which it might be permissible? Speaking at the Art Workers’ Guild in London, Prof Pinker joined Freddie Sayers to discuss rationality and its possible limits. Our thanks to Professor Pinker for an enlightening discussion. // Timecodes // 00:00 - 01:55 - Introduction: what is Steven Pinker’s definition of rationality? 01:55 - 03:35 - Are humans rational? 03:35 - 05:48 - Does Steven Pinker reject the rational - intuition binary? 05:48 - 11:47 - What about gut feelings, human chemistry? Should we junk them? 11:47 - 14:36 - Are some people more rational than others? Is Steven Pinker irrational? 14:36 - 20:18 - Are men or women the more rational sex? 20:18 - 23:33 - The 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign was hyper-rational, but they lost to Trump. Why is that? 23:33 - 25:51 - What about political experience and gut feelings, eg Bill Clinton? 25:51 - 27:58 - Human intuition vs algorithms 27:58 - 31:17 - How rational are social justice movements? 31:17 - 34:28 - Steven Pinker’s own attempted cancellation 34:28 - 36:35 - Has there been positive progress on free speech? 36:35 - 43:32 - Do conspiracy theories and national stories belong in the realm of myth? 43:32 - 46:23 - Should we eliminate myths, religions, and untrue stories altogether? 46:23 - 49:00 - Is Malcolm Gladwell cheating? 49:00 - 54:03 - Is there an evolutionary rationale for irrational beliefs? 54:03 - 57:40 - Are authoritarian COVID restrictions in Australia a form of extreme rationality? 57:40 - 58:09 - End #UnHerd #FreddieSayers #StevenPinker
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