Steven Pinker: 'Who, Me Controversial?'

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Professor Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and a member of FIRE’s Advisory Council, delivers the keynote address at FIRE’s 2019 Faculty Conference. The keynote was delivered at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge near Boston University, site of this year’s conference, on November 1, 2019.
Pinker’s keynote address draws on his long tenure in academe, touching on several heated controversies within the fields of cognitive science, psychology, and linguistics. Pinker broadens from there to an analysis of the political polarization of higher education and its implications, among them what he refers to as the moralization of intellectual hypotheses, which can both impede rigorous analysis of an idea on its own merits and stifle meaningful, well-intentioned debate.
#freespeech #academicfreedom #freeinquiry

[@robertzydenbos2277]

Only 44,000 views of this excellent talk in more than two years? It should be compulsory viewing in all academic institutions worldwide.

[@marekmican99]

End of Jan 2024: 48k

[@venkataponnaganti]

I wish Steven Pinker is in the Govt as a consultant for policy making.

[@jjjccc728]

Anybody else find the sound of this video to be way too low. Good content, what I can hear of it.

[@altrs9215]

Isn't the sugar, saturated fat macronutrient seeking activity of human beings widely accepted to be adaptive and satisfies a very primal but no longer relevant concern of the certainty of a long and drawn out winter that will lay waste to all those that don't bear the flubber to withstand it? Or am I mistaken? In terms of the cheesecake example an adaptive argument would be low hanging fruit.

[@EllipticGeometry]

I think the point is that we happen to appreciate cheesecake for reasons that didn’t originate in it. Those reasons may well be adaptive, but there’s nothing in them that was informed by cheesecake. It is our own trans-evolutionary creation. So it is with music, if Pinker is right. (I wouldn’t personally go that far. It is fair to hypothesize and test your hypotheses in the pursuit of knowledge, of course.)

[@davidwilkie9551]

Rectifying false attribution to un-testable Theory or authority is punishment enough for a comprehensive Education. Ie "Let no good deeds go unpunished" is inescapable logic.

[@tomorrowtodaysociety2028]

Plato writes about how such perverse backlashes births tyranny from the remains of democracy. See Books VIII & IX of the Republic. Matching his description of the final days of democracy to what we are experiencing today is an uncanny experience.

[@emmanuelsibug8405]

This is so smart

[@davidwilkie9551]

Refined assessments and carefully judging a saner position than the typically spiteful militaristic manipulation of discussions that pass for democratic points of view, is relatively controversial by being middle of the road.

[@schnauzpig]

I wonder if he still supports Trudeau. It would be interesting to hear such an intelligent man try to defend such obvious tyranny.

[@user-lx7jn9gy6q]

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking Trudeau is nothing more than a complete loss. Steven would definitely disagree with his stance on freedom of speech and especially his moves towards restricting hate speech online (with a very wide definition for what hate speech is no less). But Trudeau is pro carbon tax and a carbon tax is unanimously accepted to be the pro capitalist solution to solving climate change. So there are trade offs with Trudeau.

[@davidwilkie9551]

The instantaneous positioning Centre of Absolute Zero-infinity reference-framing containment in Perspective Principle memory = resonance bonding sense-in-common is another model of language (subject to probabilistic disassociation = Entropy) based in/on e-Pi-i sync-duration, factual Information/Actuality of QM-TIMESPACE In-form-ation. By default, arguing from First Principle Observation is the 0-1-2-ness log-antilog reciprocation-recirculation resonance that has "the Ring of Truth", Euler's, Alice's Unit Circle Ring, Actuality of Math-Phys-Chem and Geometry In-form-ation.

[@davidwilkie9551]

Fundamental re-cognition of ER=EPR Singularity-point omnidirectional-dimensional logarithmic Origin of e-Pi-i holography is a Math-Physics foundation from which to justify Debate = de-bait noxious arrogance. Thanks be to the Professors who have struggled to gather their thoughts on Actuality.

[@hairybubbles127]

Too late, FIRE. Too late. I mean, keep fighting, but it might be time for foundation of - and exodus to - some form of actual academia.

[@catsaresocute650]

No, it's both impossible for men and woman to be equal if different behond slight differences in ability regarding talent to choose to do some small number of things and it's wrong.

[@catsaresocute650]

It's not that they are good if they're natural but a very real consideration of the impact of the assumption that inherenty negativ expecilly those that aren't just bad but evil could be gentic. That's impossible because the conclusion of what the right action would be is terrible.

[@ALavin-en1kr]

He is an atheist and that is fine so long as he is not militant although militant atheists are not so much controversial as boring.

[@ingenuity168]

Stephen Pinker hasn't been controversial at all. I fully agree with his views. 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻♥️♥️♥️

[@gessie]

It's interesting to see Pinker, whom is no doubt capable of avoiding common pitfalls in rhetoric, to straw-man his oppositions' arguments. The problem is new optimism, which entirely lacks empiricism, fails to provide any evidence whatsoever and forgoes all observation of our current ethical situation in order to be optimistic, joyful, pleasant, populist and, indeed, the perspective of a "flower child" as described here. To be fair, we can't tell what sort of criticism Pinker has received in private channels, but the claim that all is fine and dandy is certainly controversial to all outside of the ivory tower that is comfortable Harvard, and the deliberate misrepresentation of statistics ought to be controversial within academia as well. Thankfully Al Jazeera was there to undermine his sophist nonsense in full public view.

[@shawncrespi4436]

Interesting that you proceed Yo straw man pinker after accusing him of strawmanning his critics .