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Today’s world is characterized by people clinging to beliefs, hyperpolarization and the degradation of discourse. However, acclaimed author and psychologist Steven Pinker argues the very opposite: The world is actually improving, and there’s never been a safer and better time to be alive.
In his book Enlightenment Now, Pinker makes the case that Enlightenment principles of reason, science and humanism are directly enhancing the quality of life for everyone—not just the West. However, a number of Anti-Enlightenment practices threaten the progress of human development. According to Pinker, dedication to romantic ideologies, political affiliations and religions have protected unscientific arguments, preventing resolutions on issues ranging from gun violence to climate change.
Join one of the world’s leading thinkers for a powerful conversation about human nature, a defense of knowledge and the case for science, reason, humanism and progress.
min 7:30 science is also a dogma
Pinker needs to brush up on his history. The French revolution was as much a product of the Enlightenment as was the American Bill of Rights, and his caricature of Romanticism (which did have its flaws) as about "Blood and Soil and Race." Without steel manning his argument, all it takes is a similar caricature of the Enlightenment as "hyperbolically idealistic, utopian, anti-establishment, unyielding, rigid, coldly rational and lacking in compassion" to defeat his argument.
Also, humanism was a Christian doctrine, it didn't exist among Greco-Roman culture (they believed in citizen's rights, rationalism etc but not universal human dignity). Christianity introduced the idea that we need to work for the flourishing and wellbeing of ALL humans as an ideal "There is neither Jew nor Greek, Slave nor Free, Male nor Female." Christian humanism also had its flaws, but introduced the revolutionary idea of universal human dignity and value.
Our natural state is not "poverty" but tribal life. Had been before we were humans. Poverty is the consequence of civilization/overpopulation which is defined by its unnatural nature. You can't have rich people if you don't have poor people. Poor people are poor because the rich extract value from them. That is the purpose of civilization.
I highly recommend the book, but it is nice to see these ideas discussed in person as well. Thank you for hosting this.
why is it so hard to interview someone? you are not a comedian, stop making jokes and just let the man talk
It's very refreshing to hear Dr. Pinker talk. It does seems like the world is turning away from facts and we are being fed all kind of anti-facts nonesense nowadays in the media. The world is changing, and the transfer and manipulation of information is changing. This is very grounding to listen to because it looks at the facts. Love it.
His new book is awesome; almost done reading it. He's brilliant.
To fast-track my research, does anyone know whether reason+science+humanism actually caused progress or is only correlated with it?
I dont get how sending the planet to inevidable destruction, being human progress.
Steven Pinker is set apart from the other public intellectuals. He's so soft spoken and I've never heard him say something that can be opposed.
Well said!
Pinker is a moron
Thanks very much for uploading. This was fantastic.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/13/john-gray-steven-pinker-wrong-violence-war-declining
America's very own Dr. Pangloss.
I love Pinker’s optimism. As opposed to Chomsky who is the world’s most vociferous crybaby.
Delightful!!! I really enjoyed their little comedic riffing interludes. Pinker is brilliant!!
I bought his book yesterday
Does the Commonwealth Club have its own production unit? Many groups try to produce videos like this but the production values are horrible. These are quite good.
As a species, we lie to ourselves about most of our life.
"I don't think that faith has a role in society" I could not agree more.
Thank you Steven for sharing your mythology regarding the nature of the cosmos, good to see that you are able to create meaning from a dumb materialistic universe?
why does the interviewer call him Steve at 1:16
7:20 – yeah people feeling like they're in the right when they're objectively not is pretty scary. It's irresponsible not to recognize that you might be wrong!
So many people are just regurgitating what they read in his new book, with the most common assertion being that 'things are improving across the board, in every way', but there is so much wrong with it. You can lower the level of income that is nationally considered to be the poverty line, but that doesn't take people out of poverty. He didn't do that, obviously, but, there so many convenient omissions in his book and clever navigation around the whole truth.
I read Laurence Krause, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari as well as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and these show me that science is not dogma. Science is seeking answers to questions by reason and logical enquiry, assessing its credibility before accepting it. There are no Authorities in science. Everything is open to question by everyone. This is what The Enlightenment refers to. It is the exact opposite of religious dogma, regardless of the religion.
I would love to see a discussion between Steven Pinker and Chris Hedges, they are so opposite
18:10: "The West itself hasn't really been that committed to Enlightenment ideals. Even as a philosophy, a creed, a set of ideals, no sooner did the Enlightenment emerge then there was a counter-Enlightenment, a romantic movement, a valorization of blood and soil and race and nation (Nazism, Trumpism etc) The West has had a tension between Enlightenment and counter-Enlightenment ideals for 250 years and in fact it was really only after the Second Word War that we had Enlightenment ideals in the form of International organizations, a spread of Democracy, Globalization really become ascendant. Before that Nationalism was a major belief system and even today with the rise of authoritarian populism, these are florid counter-Enlightenment movements championed (it sounds like an Oxymoron to talk about the Intellectual roots of Trumpism, at first i thought it was an eruption of raw instinct) but there are intellectuals who defend Trump. They often allude to counter-Enlightenment ideals. There were 200 academics who signed a statement in support of Trump a couple of months prior to the 2016 election. According to this philosophy, there is no humanity, just tribes and zero-sum competition between tribes, to surrender to international globalism is to be a chump in the battle between tribes and races. These are ideas, although I think they are terrible ideas."
I would really love an in depth chat between Pinket and Peterson. I like Peterson but the more I listen to him he sounds like Deepak