Steven Pinker on the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (Full Interview)

49 thoughts on “Steven Pinker on the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (Full Interview)”

1. @52:24 The idea that the current court system in the USA's for-profit prison cartel is "a disinterested third party" couldn't be more wrong or more clueless. Where is he getting his information about how the courts operate? Is this the best classical liberals can do?! FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!

2. From @51:20 to @53:00 what comes out of his mouth is about as wise as most things that come out of Alabama Klansmens' mouths. He's siding with totalitarian tyranny here, the exact opposite of "enlightenment." He says @52:40 "the idea that safety comes from individuals defending their interests with guns is almost certainly has led to the high rates of violence" …Wow. Just wow. This man should be kept away from sharp silverware, and much further from the reins of power to set government policy. He knows nothing about what he speaks! For those who want to learn about the topic of self-defense, I recommend: Don Kates; Alan Gottlieb; etc. (I also recommend the simple logic of being able to understand emergence in changing circumstances. Let's say you miscalculated about how safe the government was, and the government now is coming to take you to the gulag, as it did 1930s German Jews, and 1993 Rwandan Tutsi minority. Would you: Rather have a gun and know how to use it? OR Rather not have a gun and not know how to properly use a gun? …take as much time as you need. If you choose the latter, you might get to watch your family taken away to the gas chamber, or, more likely, they might get to watch you taken away to a concrete cage, your childrens' standard of living and educations stripped from them.)

3. Ummm, vaccine safety is extremely questionable according to the CDC scientist who LIED on the MMR study AND climate change is also questionable as long as weather manipulation via geoengineering/chemtrails remain an invisible variable in the discussion. Having academics marginalize the truth by demeaning it “fake news” or “crazy conspiracy theory” make their entire argument suspect. Volumes can be written to describe a truth or obfuscate a lie, academics are accomplices and should use due diligence in addressing topics that common sense proves to exist. Checkerboard skies and autism rates coinciding with the outrageous increase in the vaccine schedule don’t require degrees to figure out. Stop belittling and start investigating, your credibility is on the line.

4. Dave is often criticized for not having on people from the Left – or, just generally sane people. After listening to this, I have to argue the contrary. Dave should really stick to the Katie Hopkins and Stefan Molyneuxs of the world, because this is way over his league. Poor Pinker probably didn´t know what awaits him, I guess he just got a recommendation from Sam Harris and went with it. It was quite painful to listen how Dave tried to hammer his usual bullshit talking points and Steven trying to not have any of it but remain composed.

5. OMG, that discussion about the Vox article. Dave is like I see that there is legit science saying support for free speech is up with millenials, but what about those anecdotes I´ve got from my alt-right friends who were laughed at when they brought up the Bell Curve during serious academic debate?!

6. What a great intro, holy hell, found you recently through your interview with Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro and i must say what a find! Keep it up 😀

7. @58:37 "Population has increased by 40%, GDP increased by 2.5 We've driven twice as many miles, but air pollution has been reduced by 60%. That almost certainly wouldn't have happened with just market innovation, because noone on their own has an incentive to not pollute." …This is an assertion that's not supported by the evidence. (It's also illogical: Where does the collective incentive arise from, if not aggregate individual incentives?) The EPA spends massive amounts of time bullying land-owners, as the John Stossel episode "Illegal Everything" reveals. 99% of the improvement in air quality is catalytic converters, but the EPA does kill massive amounts of potential startup businesses, especially in manufacturing, with their insane bureaucracy.

8. Thanx much; Pinker is an elder who speaks new. Pinker, Haidt and others come out of an older left to criticize lefties while conservatives like Jerry Taylor or Jonah Goldberg move in the same direction towards the same place in critique of the right, not the middle but different. My experience with younger folk is optimistically positive. The world is changing, and it is not all bad.

9. See if you can Webster Tarpley. This is a piece recorded for INFO WARS in 2009. https://youtu.be/f5VqbmxklWc Depopulation is the cure for global warming.

10. Seems like he needs to learn a bit more American history. You know the part where petitions to the British government were rejected.

11. ENTJ!

12. Get a haircut, hippie.

13. I wonder what hair conditioner Pinker uses?

14. Enjoyed this interview a lot. Definitely going to give his book a shot.

15. Thanks for the interview, now I know Pinker's ideas and thoughts.

16. We spent millions to take pictures of stars but the genetics of intelligence is not a question worth asking? Well at least he acknowledgeds the question exists

17. I feel like I watched a completely different interview than most people in the comments did.

18. He lost me at using democracy to fight a repressive government. Still a great talk.

19. ANYONE WITH A BRAIN KNOWS MSM IS RUN BY CULTURAL MARXISTS WHERE GOOD IS BAD AND UP IS DOWN. DON´T FALL FOR THE DELUSION.

20. SO DIVERSE…A BUNCH OF JEWS. HOW DIVERSE CAN YOU GET. NOT.

21. MR. PINKER, ALL NEWS IS POLITICISED. FOR YOU TO SINGLE OUT FOX IS LAUGHABLE WHEN ALL OTHER MSM IS DECIDEDLY FAR LEFT.

22. MR. PINKER LIKES TO CHOOSE HIS FACTS TO BACK UP HIS OWN VERSION OF REALITY.

23. Awesome, the US is better than Turkey! Oh hey Mr Rubin, question. From what sector do all the most important scientific and technilogical innovations come from? From what sector do the vast majority of Nobel prize come from? That’s right, the public sector eg universities, nasa, Pentagon. Some examples: computers, semi conductors, lasers, Internet, Wi-Fi, touchscreen. Basically the whole basis of our 20th century advanced economy.

24. Tommy Robinson is now a political prisoner in the U.K. for having the wrong views. He is at risk of being murdered in prison but the judge did not care about this fact.

    Theresa May, like Home Secretary predecessor Jacqui Smith who banned Michael Savage from entering Great Britain, is also a Merkel apparatchik who controls the citizenry. The press is not permitted to report on Tommy Robinson's imprisonment.

    Even if you don't agree with Tommy Robinson, any democrat should be opposed to his arrest and imprisonment, and the silencing of the press.

    Free speech is not getting more free, the lack of it is just being hidden by our politicians, especially in the U.K.

    Steven Pinker should look into what is happening on the ground more closely. Sadly with cozy liberals, they don't want to get too close to the ground and see what is really happening.

25. 55:35 The poverty rate is roughly the same ever since LBJ started his War on Poverty

26. Mr. Pinker surely didn't have time to follow Venezuela's fall. There's no way to fight a dictatorial regime using democratic manifestations. If a dictatorial regime raise in an unarmed US, no democratic resistance will save it either. Here in Brazil, the Supreme Court prohibited the vote printing law. FOR THE SECOND TIME! Those twelve "judges" simply denied a law that was approved by almost unanimity of our people's representatives. There's no way to prove there will be fraud or not in our voting machines. First they disarmed the Brazilian people, about 15 years ago, ignoring the result of the plebiscite in which 2/3 of us declared we didn't want to be disarmed. Now they say we should not question if our voting process is legit. They even threat to deny our politicians to run the next election process if they question the voting machines, saying that it is fake news. If you want to learn more about Brazilian corruption and the Foro de São Paulo, search YouTube for Olavo de Carvalho.

27. By the way crime raised a lot in result of the disarmament of the brazilian people. The number of death here raised to a war level worse than Syria. Don't buy the democrat sh*t !

28. Here in Brazil, when somebody does not take a stand in some question, we say he is in the top of a wall. When the question is about politics, we say the person is a "isentão". Something like a big fat exempt person. A lot of people in Brazil prefers to do not take a stand in order to do not have to search for information and do not have to face reality. How can you try to be a centrist if one of the ideologies killed more than a hundred townsend innocent people? That's insane or at least ignorant.

29. I love Pinker, but his description and understanding of Judaism is astonishingly illogical, especially for such a logical person

30. I'm tired of self-loathing! Jewish intellectuals telling Americans how great it is to be diverse and inclusive.
    How nice it must it must be for Canada to have the US military as a bodyguard! You shit talker!

31. A critical analysis of Steven Pinker ideas on reason https://medium.com/steven-pinker-a-critique/steven-pinkers-personal-take-on-reason-7ae75ee1fa29

32. I'm glad more and more people are referring to the left for what they truly are; illiberal.

33. 47:30 is quite relieving and terrifying at the same time. on the one hand it's relieving to know that life will only get better but on the other hand it feels like some people are pushing it in the wrong direction. I just need to trust that the better minds will prevail as they most always do.

34. Pinker somehow believes that democracy will prevent government oppression. I'd be interested in seeing his research which demonstrates the truth of that. People keep guns in a MAD system, the police don't want to get killed so if both sides have guns everyone has an incentive to work things out. If only the government has force I don't see the incentives for negotiations on the part of government. That's how coups are enabled.

35. Awesome interview, I'm now a fan, I'm buying his book right away.

36. Pinker is an astonishingly delightful person to read and listen to.

37. Very nice gentleman but do not agree with some of his points… but this is what decent exchange is all about… Dave Rubin is doing a good job on informing all of us in the different ways to think or approach a problem… knowledge is power and should spread decency…

38. men need to stop dying their hair. oh wait, he's gay, so whatever….

39. Nevertheless despite his deep anti-catholic bias I strongly recommend his books as great compendium of data about wonderful progress

40. The greatest achievement of enlightenment was reintroducing modern state as a mass terror and murder as it was during roman times (this is by the way what he shows in his book better Angels) And use of scientific means to institute this terror . Scientific method rational thinking use od ata for arguments were product of medieval church!

41. I wonder if Pinker is conscious of his anti catholic bias and is willfully omitting history Or ignorant to facts that Christianity and Roman catholic church in particular was uniquely responsible for idea of continuous progress in science For development of Universities as centers for learning and knowledge accumulation , for creating scientific method, rational thinking, use of mathematics to verify science, placing medicine as a science within university system, development of hospitals orphanages and and social work and so on.

42. It amazing that brilliant person like Pinker can be so ignorant about history and and so biased against catholic church. He sound like moron which he is not but he should read Thomas Aquinas father of rational thought Or Ockham father scientific method and read about first agricultural revolution brought about monastics and concept of society duty to relieve human suffering

43. Rubin should interview Pinker's hair next time

44. Pinker is less interesting than I had hoped. It shocks me that he is seen as controversial.

45. – most people here are not at all interested in truth , all you want is to fuel your emotions , be honest with yourselfs

46. i wrote an orchestra piece about this subject. listen if you can stand it. https://personablack.bandcamp.com/track/the-sky-is-falling

47. Negotiated their way to independence, accept for the part where the Queen has her head on your money & is your Sovereign Crown that rules over you. Just a minor detail.

48. Question: If sunlight is the best disinfectant (Rubin's words) then how come Fox News has been so influential and divisive (Pinker's words) in the places it started to be broadcast? I don't know how to resolve that contradiction.

49. Hail Pinker!
    Smart guy, smartest I've come across for a really long time.
    read How the mind works, best book

Comments are closed.