Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

Steven Pinker is among those who fear that we are losing the liberal Enlightenment tradition of seeking truth, and instead we are slipping into dogma and irrationality. This book is a useful antidote, but it is not as valuable as the efforts of Julia Galef ("The Scout Mindset) or Jonathan Rauch ("The Constitution of Knowledge").All three books point out that the principle of fallibism is part of rationality. Fallibilism is the understanding that individuals are often wrong, and thus the pursuit of truth is a process, never finished.Galef does a better job of incorporating fallibilism in her book. She has acquired the wisdom that rationality is more than just a toolkit. It is a "mindset," in which you constantly worry about being wrong. In a sort of Zen koan, she sees one of the biggest impediments to rationality as the belief that you are rational. She models having a concern for being wrong, often interrupting her own analysis to express doubts and caveats.In contrast, Pinker speaks in the voice of a professor, giving the Sermon From On High to impart knowledge to novices. The impression this gives is that once you have been initiated into the ways of the rational you need no longer fear your own fallibility. It is not the impression that Pinker would want to leave if he thought about it more carefully.Where both Galef and Pinker fall short, in my opinion, is that they place too much emphasis on truth-seeking as an individual effort, while only briefly nodding to the social/institutional process by which knowledge is filtered. Rauch, to his credit, focuses on the latter. But I was disappointed that Rauch's diagnosis of the problems with existing institutions puts too much emphasis on our failure to honor journalism, academia, and social science, and not enough emphasis on the decay of those institutions and what needs to be done about it.Pinker's book is well worth your time to read. But I would first reach for Galef and Rauch.

Steven Pinker writes that this book grew out of an undergraduate course he teaches at Harvard. After reading the work, you might find that fairly obvious.Pinker provides synopses of probability theory, logic, causal inference, game theory… all the hallmarks of a rational view of the world. He explains why these approaches can seem artificial and how the mind can refine its natural dispositions to think in a rational manner.All this is praiseworthy. I found myself agreeing with Pinker one hundred percent of the time. It’s just that all of this is covered in a thousand other books. Why did Pinker feel a need to publish from what seems like a very introductory class at Harvard?Even the examples are tired. From the marshmallow test to word families suggested by the term vegetable there isn’t a new concept in the text.I recommend it for young readers or those who are first dipping their toes into the basics of a rational view of the world. The rest of us can escape the collective boredom of being explained the rational choice when faced with the prisoner’s dilemma once again.

Renowned cognitive scientist Steven Pinker gives readers in his latest book a timely and deep analysis into the subject of "rational thinking". In the Preface, Pinker writes: "we face deadly threats to our health, our democracy, and the livability of the planet. Though the problems are daunting, solutions exist, and our species has the intellectual wherewithal to find them. Yet among our fiercest problems today is convincing people to accept the solutions when we do find them". Pinker first discusses how humans have the basic intelligence to have survived for thousands of years during prehistory in harsh and unforgiving environments, using interesting examples from the San of the Kalahari Desert. However, current human societies seem primarily irrational, falling victim to myths, conspiracies, and in general false reasoning because of numerous cognitive biases and traps. Pinker devotes the bulk of his book to describing the academic literature in this field. This may sound dry, but I enjoyed his clear and often entertaining presentations. Although informative, it is intimidating to learn about the numerous ways in which people can go wrong despite apparent well meaning efforts at "rational thinking". Compounding this problem is the tendency for people to engage in what Pinker calls "myside bias," ignoring or distorting facts, however sound, which are presented by an opposing group. For Pinker, this is an urgent moral issue, with implications for the future for all of us. Pinker sees hope in the power of reasoned argument, offering some examples from history of societal changes, such as the abandonment of slavery. I would like to believe that Pinker is correct in his optimism, but I suspect that the journey into the future will be a turbulent one. For example, if a significant number of people base their false beliefs on religious identity, there may be an effort to impose these beliefs on "nonbelievers," which throughout history has often resulted to chaos, wars, and destruction. Even if this does not happen, perhaps the key question is whether humanity will run our of time before rationality prevails.

I a still going through this book, but it has some very interesting analysis and trends to discuss and looks at the way the psychology of the masses in our modern world is affecting our civilization. We have some outs if we choose to see them... RATIONALLY... lol Recommended read.

I had to work through the text because of my junior knowledge of neurology & psychology. I don't like mind games. BUT, the insights and constructs behind our thinking and deciding things are worth the effort. There is a lot of information herein. We all have a long, long way to go to enhance our problem solving and communication skills.

A primer of formal logic, causation, and probability.A breath of fresh air amidst an American polarized society, ranging from conspiracy theories on the right to social justice biased aggressivness on the left.

How can one give him anything less than five stars

In a world that struggles to cope with misinformation and conspiracy theories on a regular basis, Steven Pinker's book explains why. It's a terrific book.