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Steven Pinker.Pdf ‘My20-year-old self wouldbesurprised I’mthrice-married and childless’ the little-known yetmomentous factthatviolence is in historical decline; defined apolitical goal (to identify the causesofour progressand intensify them); and challengedmetotell aparticularly complex story in a compelling way. What do youfind most irritating in otherpeople? Bickering.The costofconflict –in trust and long-term reciprocity –isalmost always greater than whatever’sbeing fought over. If your 20-year-old self could see younow,whatwouldhethink? He’dbesurprisedthatI’m thrice- marriedand childless, relievedthat Ilandedatenuredprofessorship, anddelighted that Icrossedover into writing forawideaudience. Which objectthatyou’velostdo youwish youstillhad? Effortlessmemory fordetails. What is thegreatest challengeofour time? The greatest practical challenge INVENTORY STEVEN PINKER,EXPERIMENTALPSYCHOLOGIST is avoiding catastrophicclimate change. The greatest moral and political challengeisdefending the Enlightenment idealsofreason, Steven Pinker,63, is Johnstone theory from Joan Bresnan,and beautiful in aboxyBauhaus science,humanismand progress. Family professor in the psycholinguistics(andprose style) way,and it makes photography Do youbelieve in anafterlife? departmentofpsychologyat from Roger Brown. But I’mnot asensuous experience. No.The mind depends entirelyon Harvard. He conducts research much of amentee:I’vealways What ambitionsdoyoustill have? thebrain,which is indisputably on language and cognition. gathered ideas and methods from Ialwayshaveseveral book mortal. I’dadd thatthe concept of His books include The Language far and wide. possibilitiesfloatinginthe back of an afterlife is morallytroubling. It Instinct, The BlankSlate and Howphysicallyfitare you? mymind. But my greatest ambition impliesthat healthand happiness TheBetter Angels of OurNature. I’ve alwaystried to keep fit through is to writeonsometopic Inever arenot such abig deal, becauselife cycling,jogging,hiking and dreamed I’deverwriteabout. on earth is an infinitesimal portion What wasyour childhood or kayaking –any aerobic exercise in What drives youon? of one’s existence. Every moment in earliest ambition? which scenery goes by. Deepexplanations and our finite span of consciousness is By high school,Iknew that Iwanted Ambition or talent: which elegant language. somethingtosavour. to teach and thatIwantedtothink. mattersmoretosuccess? Howpolitically If youhad to rateyour satisfaction Ihad come across theterm“think- Theymultiply. committed areyou? with your life so far,out of 10, tank” and vaguelywanted to work In what placeare youhappiest? Having plottedsomuchdata on what would youscore? in one. My mothersaid, “The place In my house inCapeCod,with my human progress, I’ve become Giventhe possibilitiesfor suffering foryou is auniversity.” wife, the novelist and philosopher aradical incrementalist and and misfortunethat come with Privateschool or state school? Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. apassionatecentrist. Liberal being human, itwould be an actof Universityorstraight intowork? What would youliketoown that democracyand international cosmicingratitude for me to answer Stateschools in Montreal, a youdon’t currentlypossess? institutions areprecious withanything lessthan 10. G bachelor’sfromMcGill, then a Asingle-digitinbox. accomplishments and well lifetime ricocheting between What’syour biggest worth fighting for. Interview by HesterLacey. OOMBER BL Harvard and MIT. extravagance? What is thegreatestachievement “Enlightenment Now: The Case for E/ Whowas or still is your mentor? ALeicaRangefinder.It’s of your lifesofar? Reason, Science, Humanism, and LU Ilearntexperimental psychology medium-tech at best, and The Better Angels of OurNature Progress”byStevenPinkeris RJB from Stephen Kosslyn, linguistic seriouslyoverpriced, but (2011). It surprisedreaderswith published by AllenLane TO VIC 8 FT.COM/MAGAZINE APRIL 28/292018.
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  • Atouch of 'Enlightenment'
    2006-2017 Kasturi & Sons Ltd. -Sukumar [email protected] - know saturday, march 17, 2018 BL 8 Ĩ STATES OF MATTER A touch of ‘Enlightenment’ At a time when most pundits are given to despair over the near-collapse of global order, psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker sees immense scope for human betterment masses under their benign sway. The American declaration of independence sukumar is an apt metaphor for what went wrong in the muralidharan Enlightenment project. Agreeing on its reson­ ant formulation that all men are “created equal” and endowed with “certain inalienable rights”, was the easy part. The waffling began the moment it came to making this principle operational in the citizenship law. The US “nat­ uralisation” law adopted in 1790 — a mere 14 years since the declaration of independence — restricted the right of citizenship to “free white persons” of good character. This was foretold in the doctrine pro­ nounced by Kant and its curious insistence that Enlightenment lies in the “free” submis­ sion of all to universal laws, leading to the civic state in which every man would be equal and autonomous and “compelled to be a good citizen”. Kant begins with a notion of “free” submission of all mankind to the universal laws — whatever be his moral attributes — and ends with a certain force of “compulsion” that makes him a good citizen. That force of com­ pulsion would be subtle in some instances, overt and explicit in others. Kant for instance, saw private individuals as meriting the status of citizenship only if they were free, ie, unconstrained by the need to dis­ pose of their labour power in the market to keep body and soul together.
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  • FT Magazine: Q&A with Experimental Psychologist Steven
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  • A Jewish Values Critique of Steven Pinker's "Enlightenment Now"
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  • 2016 SERMON a Funny Thing Happened After I Finished Graduate School
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  • Enlightenment Now: the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Steven Pinker, ISBN: 978-80525427575
    Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Steven Pinker, ISBN: 978-80525427575. Steven Pinker’s latest work, Enlightenment Now, provides an optimistic outlook on the current state of world affairs. According to Pinker, all is not doom and gloom—and he spends 453 pages explaining why. But the book isn’t solely a response to the seemingly Earth-enveloping cloud of despair many Americans have felt since the 2016 election. Pinker declares in the preface: “this book is not about the forty-fifth president of the United States and his advisors. It was conceived some years before Donald Trump announced his candidacy, and I hope it will outlast his administration by many more.” Pinker appeals to Enlightenment-era philosophy—the idea that reason, science, and humanism can solve humanity’s problems—as he addresses various aspects of modern society that are indeed improved, historically speaking (and don’t worry, if you don’t remember what the Enlightenment was—Pinker spends part one of the book, titled “Enlightenment,” filling you in). Life expectancy is higher, people are healthier, generally wealth is more widespread and inequality less profound, people are generally happier—you get the idea. And you don’t have to take Pinker’s word for it—the book is chock-full of graphs and tables, visual representations of well-sourced data proving Pinker’s points. While certainly enlightening (pardon the pun), Pinker’s book reads more like an interesting textbook than a work of popular science nonfiction. This is not a bad thing, but it definitely feels geared toward a narrow, highly educated audience: those “liberal academic elites” who were both baffled and devastated by the outcome of the 2016 election (you don’t throw around words like “metastasizing,” “abeyance,” and “vicissitudes” if you want to reach a broad audience—even The New York Times has an 8th grade vocabulary rule).
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