A Rational Look at Irrationality: Steven Pinker

[@willyjohnsons_member6019]

After a run through various youtube rabbit holes, a Steven Pinker speech always gives me hope.

[@martinze11]

Hope is important. Always remember hope.

[@elenadrachyovs4151]

Isnt it escaped from Pandora's box?

[@davidregen1358]

Our desire for community exceeds our thirst for truth. Hence the abuse of social media.

[@polanve]

I have been reading "The Gilded Age" by Mark Twain. Distrust in institutions of government, science, and journalism was them, and is now well earned. I didn't think you can address this distrust without reviewing the studies history of governments, media corporations and business interests in lying for profit. For example, big tobacco, 3M and PFAS, the Gulf of Tonkin, etc. etc. etc.

[@bradsillasen1972]

If I were to introduce someone to Pinker's wisdom, this is the lecture I'd choose. It should be mandatory viewing for everyone on the planet. The modern complement to The Sermon on the Mount.

[@slothsloth4043]

It seems to be implied from Steven Pinker that we need to know the basics of philosophy

[@glenncurry3041]

I was actively involved with trying to bring Critical Thinking classes into K-12 public schools in the '80's. Initial successes always went down the same path. Local parents first were very interested in getting their kids taught how to think rationally and logically. Until little Johnny or Janie came home and started asking those embarrassing questions about long held family beliefs, religion, authority, .... Then the classes were as quickly shut down. You don't even hear about such efforts anymore!

[@Kingsofsky-hi8hs]

More of such Great thinkers and their rational thinkings.....❤

[@PopArtificer]

Brilliant as always! Steven Pinker never disappoints.

[@Question-Research-wj5wr]

Great man Mr.Pinker....

[@kavorka8855]

Pinker's Rationality is a relatively small book, yet it's quite challenging to read, this is despite his excellent writing skills in reaching his readers. Pinker's masterpiece is The Better Angels of Our Nature, a book that should be in each and every library, bookshelf and made a compulsory history subject in every school and universities. Enlightenment Now is yet another masterpiece of his. How the Mind Works is a must read if one wished to understand how evolution solved the challenges of sight, frame of reference and intelligence. I think it's a must read to understand modern AI too.

[@Bagratt7]

Pinker is a discredited paid hack.

[@pcm9969]

Better Angels is a masterwork. I did the audio version during my work commute. It's a great way to get through an 800+ page book! Enlightenment Now is also good and I'll have to check out Rationality.

[@jimjackson4256]

He didn’t mention that old time religion in the irrational section.

[@jmcmob608]

Thank you very much...

[@readynowforever3676]

Instead of “40”, this should have at least 40 million views.

[@Mr.Puppet_23]

Always a pleasure to be in touch with Pinker's sound reasoning and rethorical smoothness! Time to read some of his books now.

[@cescu2]

Where can you find these biases, is there a book to learn logic? I found one with some sort of circles. Is that it? I found no biases there.

[@djayjp]

Should be mandatory teaching in high school.

[@louiselincoln]

You know, I find some of this extremely interesting, and also incorrect. Many "air brained" irrational beliefs do have some (and I emphasise some, not all) rational basis. For example, all of our pharmaceuticals did come originally from herbal remedies. A few drops of yeast in warm water and sugar will multiply and transform the liquid from what we would define and perceive as water into a substance we can then use for fermentation purposes. I think all humans have a concept of the difference between 'living' and 'non-living' (although of course that boundary can get a bit blurry when looking at prions and viruses etc.). It also seems incorrect to describe 'fasting' as an 'air brained' concept - it is part of weight management and can also be an effective cure for type 2 diabetes and many weight-related diseases...hardly an 'air brained' concept. It works and has been proven to do so. I think Pinker is barking up the wrong tree here. The irrationality is not necessarily in the social behaviour and observations that Pinker describes here - they seem more like symptoms. In effect, it's in over-extrapolation without using the scientific method to deduce the accuracy of the hypotheses (ironically, what Pinker is also doing here by describing symptoms of irrationality rather than causes). Even the most intelligent scientists, doctors, intellectuals and leaders are not in any sense completely rational. We access rationality by learning from our mistakes or misdiagnosis (both in our own lives and through intergenerational learning, history, studying philosophy and science, mathematics etc.) . I am personally glad we are not entirely rational. That would seem like a very boring, robotic world indeed.

[@bobs182]

Wikipedia's biggest weakness is articles concerning anything related to products and services for sale are skewed by the entities that sale them.

[@sankaraishaya9381]

I came to this video from another Steve did which was brilliant. The thing that scares me the most is the possibility of peasants with pitchforks and torches burning down civilization. What scares me almost as much is a video like this one. What hear Steve say here is whatever I don't have evidence for doesn't exist and there is something wrong with anyone who disagrees. If you want to incite a mob to riot just stand up in front of them and try that line of reasoning. My father was an engineer. I was to be an engineer. But about half way through my studies I had the first of four we are not in Kansas anymore Toto experiences that broke my certainty of how things are. So I know how badly a person needs their world view to be right. It is unbelievable painful to be set adrift in that way. You are asking the peasants to make that kind of shift. Not going to happen that way. I am fascinated by near death experiences lately. My question to you is this: what is acceptable evidence? If many hundreds people say to you I had this experience and many of them can report to their doctors what the doctors were doing while the patient was flat lined, what do you do? Throw it all out because it doesn't fit what you are sure is true? A little bit of openness and humility might make it easier to have the conversations needed to lower the risk of collapse from ignorance.

[@YassenChapkanov]

The humility of the educated is abused by the arrogance of the ignorant. Regarding near death experiences just apply Occams razor. Hallucinations and coincidences are more likely than the secret existence of an entirely new aspect of reality related to conciousness. When such experiences get confirmed scientifically in a lab environment I will gladly spend time reading possible metaphysical explanations.

[@RS-jp5wg]

He is positive, not by philosophical theory, but by the numerical theory of physics.

[@arthurwieczorek4894]

Rationality in Service of Bias, calling themselves the RSB.

[@JoePalau]

😂

[@nicholastregenza8426]

Thrilling clarity! We need more of this. Thank you!

[@JJ-fr2ki]

Share this!

[@alexkreyn315]

Great talk

[@Gngatho]

First time I took homeopathic medicine I felt terribly deceived...well because it was expensive in the first place... but they had such convincing theories 😅... I've never looked back since. Science is good value for your money

[@make725daily1]

I'm genuinely enthralled by your video! - "Obstacles are the building blocks of growth..."

[@acidtrungpa4760]

We can't reach the peak of our potential by going downstairs.

[@martinze11]

Charles Dickenss it best : It was the best of times, and the worst of times.

[@ytjoemoore94]

Much of this seems to be inspired by Not born yesterday

[@tbird3842]

true power

[@pk_j]

BTW conspiracies do exit, as snowden, wiki leaks and many more, which came to light. And recognising conspiracy and propaganda it totally rational because its based the very logic that these things will benefit the top rich people. ✌️✌️

[@kmeisenbach1]

"How can we be more rational?" Quit raising kids religious.

[@gregczarlinski2811]

💯

[@Knaan-ro6eo]

But your statement is fallacious on a philosophical level

[@HelliarCOH]

Surely, but that does not mean that they will become completely rational. A lot of them will still hang onto the paranormal, astrology, parapsychology, etc.

[@OddTJ]

It is not irrational to believe in God or otherwise participate in religion as long as you do not believe that it is scientific or rational on a materialist basis. It is metaphysics, not physics. It is conversely irrational to be a materialist and argue that there is no value in religion or metaphysics simply because it is not scientific. I lived most of my life staunchly against religion and metaphysics and only recently began to appreciate that it has great practical value for society and individuals. The fact that religion is not rational materialistically does not deny its practical value in helping people and groups become better. Can religion do harm? Certainly. Can materialist rationality do harm? Absolutely: nuclear weapons, unchecked capitalism, unchecked socialism, defunding arts and social sciences (including philosophy and non-mathematical logic) as they do not produce as much quantifiable return to human flourishing, etc.

[@HelliarCOH]

@@OddTJ Religion and materialist rationality are not on the same page. You are correct that religion is not irrational per se, but at the same time religion is not true. Things can be both rational and empirically false. Yes, religion can be practical and helpful, but there is no evidence that metaphysics exist. Nuclear weapons are just the result of applied sciences, but science is just the best method we have of approaching the truth. What we do with the method is another question, and that leaves us in the field of ethics, which is a completely different subject.

[@JohnnyMoondog1969]

Next week on Google Zeitgeist, Marjorie Taylor-Greene

[@ALavin-en1kr]

Mr Pinker is wrong. We are rational (thinking) and also (feeling} beings. The feeling part is often described as non-rational but imagine a person without feelings. Society labels such persons as sociopaths. A person without feeling, operating from reason alone, can behave as a Frankenstein, something society definitely does not want. What Mr. Pinker should address is not the supremacy of reason but the necessity of a balance between reason and feeling in all our actions. We have lived through the Age of Reason, the environment is almost destroyed and our continued existence is even in question. When are those who give talks going to get this, instead of continuing to perpetuate a point of view which is unbalanced and unhelpful in our current predicament and instead educate people on the full use of the faculties we have been given rather than emphasis on one faculty alone, which is both limiting and dangerous in our present situation.

[@danielbairey4411]

Imagine a world with nothing but feelings - overcome by bouts of anger, spite, jealousy or needless hurt, evolution probably weeded such out. Wisdom suggest listening critically to both voices and updating fallacies in the Bayesian manner as Pinker suggests.

[@ALavin-en1kr]

There should not be an emphasis on reason alone or on feelings alone but on a balance between both in our actions. Either one left out of the equation in our actions is not good and outcomes lack balance.

[@nathanketsdever3150]

Incredibly smart , accomplished, and articulate, but his "it's a short step to" is a veiled Guilt by association or slippery slope fallacy. Both errors of formal logic, with deep philosophical justification and history. It also has the effect of creating a straw person argument. Instead of taking down the actual argument, you just take down a somewhat related argument.. I'm confused how building one's argument based on logical fallacies is helpful. Does he know he's doing it? I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn't know he was doing this.

[@alexkreyn315]

Have you read the book?

[@nathanketsdever3150]

@@alexkreyn315 I took issue with his use of "its a short step to." Pinker is a Harvard academic, and doesn't seem to recognize he's making a logical fallacy. And this isn't the first time honestlhy.

[@gazsibb]

...but he's not using " it's a short step to" to advance his argument. He's pointing out that's one of the ways we fool ourselves and arrive at irrational positions.

[@alexkreyn315]

@@nathanketsdever3150 he’s not making a logical fallacy. He’s written a book specifically targeted to debunking such fallacies.

[@EmperorsNewWardrobe]

Time stamp?

[@callenclarke371]

There's just so much wrong with this video.

[@patricioarobles8383]

Care to explain what you think is wrong in this video?