Robinson's Podcast
Robinson's Podcast
Robinson Erhardt
100 - Steven Pinker: Rationality, Enlightenment, and Free Speech
1 hour 7 minutes Posted Jun 11, 2023 at 4:39 pm.
In This Episode…
Introduction
The Importance of Rationality
The Connection Between Language and Rationality
Rationality and Human Progress
The Evolution of Rationality and Irrationality
Conspiracy Theories and the Mythology Mindset
The Madness of Crowds
Free Speech, Enlightenment, and Rationality
Free Speech Versus Social Justice
Academic Freedom at Harvard
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Show notes
Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is an experimental cognitive psychologist who writes on language, mind, and human nature. In this episode—the hundredth of Robinson’s Podcast (!)—Robinson and Steve talk about his recent book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters (Penguin, 2022), which is linked below. More particularly, they discuss rationality’s evolutionary basis, how it is subverted by conspiratorial thinking and other dimensions of the “mythology mindset”, how it relates to enlightenment and human progress, and the state of free speech at Harvard and in the academic world at large.
Rationality: https://a.co/d/9N2uFyr
Steven’s Website: https://stevenpinker.com
Steven’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sapinker
OUTLINE
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.