219. In-Person Conversation (in Shermer’s Home) with Steven Pinker on Rationality: What it is, Why it Seems Scarce, Why it Matters in Shermer’s Home

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2021

⏱️ 109 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this conversation with Steven Pinker on his new book Rationality, the Harvard psychologist and Michael Shermer discuss how today humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding — and also appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for COVID-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are simply irrational — cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies, and illusions. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives, and set out the benchmarks for rationality itself. We actually think in ways that are sensible in the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning we’ve discovered over the millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation, and optimal ways to update beliefs and commit to choices individually and with others. These tools are not a standard part of our education — but they should be.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Michael Sherman Shower. Welcome to the Michael Sherman Show.
0:15.0	I'm your host Michael Sherman.
0:17.0	Today's episode is being brought to you by Oregon State University,
0:21.0	which is inviting you to participate in their upcoming provost lecture series
0:25.0	featuring the great neuroscientist David Eagleman. It's a free virtual event next Wednesday
0:31.2	October 27th from 6 to 7.30 PM Pacific Time.
0:36.0	So that's next Wednesday, October 27th at 6 o'clock, Pacific time.
0:41.0	You can register for the free event at beeav.
0:44.0	E.S. slash Provost-
0:47.0	hyphen lecture.
0:48.0	That's B.E-A-V.
0:50.0	They're the Beavers, Oregon State Beavers.
0:51.0	Beavo. E.S. slash Provost, hyphen lecture. If you forget all that, just Google
0:58.1	Oregon State University, comma, David Eagleman, pops right up. I just checked. I know David I met him at Ted years ago. He gave
1:05.8	this terrific talk in which he put this jacket on, this neurojacket thing that was going
1:10.3	to convert our applause or any of our response into sensory touch on his
1:16.5	torso and it was quite the demonstration. He is one of the most interesting
1:25.0	scientists and writers working today. He is a neuroscientist at Stanford and an internationally best-selling author.
1:30.0	He's the founder of two venture-backed companies, Neosensory and Brain Check, and he also directs
1:36.4	the Center for Science and Law, it's a non-profit institute.
1:40.1	And he's best known for his work on sensory substitution, time perception, brain plasticity,
1:45.6	neural law, and synesthesia in which your senses get crossed, like people that can see colors with their fingertips.
	...

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