AustralianRealist
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Adam Gopnik, author of Angels & Ages, A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln and Modern Life and Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate and many other works, discuss a fundamental question: How far can Darwin take us as a guide to why we are the way we are?
Both outspoken appreciators of Darwin, Adam Gopnik and Steven Pinker will compare their visions — perhaps complementary, perhaps contrasting — of what Darwin’s legacy is on the two hundredth anniversary of his birth.
20th of May, 2009.
Source
47:00 Does someone know the name of the cartoon Pinker said? I can't understand it.
BS
Whenever Gopnik opens his mouth, a word salad comes out.
Gopnik, nobody is there to hear you. Shut the fuck up and let Pinker speak.
Oh my this Gopnik guy is suffering from verbal diarrhoea. Its to Pinker's credit he managed to keep a straight face and engage with this insufferable man
host finally stfu 07:25
Poor Gopnik is trying to shine sitting next to Pinker.
What do those on the alt-right make of Steven Pinker?
I fear for my kids in colleges. Hope they don't turn up like some of those I-know-it-all people here–intolerant, arrogant, and disrespectful.
You go, Mr. Pink. Whoop some Darwinian gluteus maximi. OH YEAH.
Seriously though, sometimes things are better left unsaid. That said, if we meet at a dinner party, I will certainly buy you a drink. Or two.
The actual process. Really? Great name for an emotionally over-expressive, terminalist, biologically consistent cult? Make up your mind and stop being an alarm clock reminding us of what we already knew? It's crucial. Choose the other side. So glad you already have. Cheers.
To all of you who think that Gopnik spoke too much: It is a discussion – not a lecture. There are plenty of lectures from Steven Pinker. Go and watch those.
too much talk from the other guy we don't care about. this was like watching a Bill O'REILLY interview with less yelling.
hahaha, gopnik
Itsss BORIS!
This made me think that we pro-science folks should realize that it is unscientific to debate whether the theory of evolution through natural selection is "true." The scientific angle would be to argue that the theory has more evidence for it than any competing theory such as the "6 days" story in Genesis.
Group, sex, racial differences do matter. Because we do not live in a pure libertarian society where only individual merit matters. We live in a society where there is significant amount of social affirmative policies and international aid etc. A lot of it is built on the assumption that group differences in terms of outcome stems from some sort of institutional, cultural. Structural etc unfairness. So to correct that is just and ultimately practically optimal as that will lead to more fuller expression of individuals across the spectrum.
If there are significant differences between groups than such ideas will damage us, at least from a pure societal side utilitarian perspective. So group differences don't matter only in a free, libertarian society running on individual merit alone.
Great conversation! Brilliant, thoughtful observations by both Gopnik and Pinker.
I live near Darwin's home worms make me smile plain worms!!
glop nik
Interviewer has a bad habit of taking too much. Poor pinker.