Salon of the Refused
Rob Tracinski talks with Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, about the legacy of the Enlightenment. The conversation includes: exactly how good the state of the world is, “thick” versus “thin” philosophy, the Counter-Enlightenment backlash, Ayn Rand, the welfare state, and why it’s ironic that everyone is so eager to watch “Game of Thrones.”
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What a great interview . I've never seen so many big ideas discussed between two such thoughtful people, even when I used to watch Louis Rukeyser back in the day.
1:00 Pinker says that "humanism" is "the promotion of human flourishing." White nationalists want normal white people to flourish in their own countries, so that means white nationalism is a kind of humanism, but oriented towards white people's interests.
Dog didn't bark (good news often) doesn't make the news.
Please frame your shot better.
I wish you'd pushed him more on the Ayn Rand stuff. Someone claiming to be an expert in this, writing a book no less, then lumping Rand with Nietzsche, is hard to take seriously.
Also, he just casually throws words around he doesn't really understand and is remarkably superficial, which he tries to cover with stats. No wonder he doesn't want to get too "thick" with the philosophy. That's a sure way to get exposed as someone who has no idea what he is talking about.
Guys like Pinker are not really allies.
“I have denied knowledge therefore, in order to make room for faith.”
-Kant
“Reason is the basic method of man’s survival.”
-Rand
The wall behind Tracinski is curous. Is he in prison?
Opponents of reason are intellectually paralyzed by disasters.