Philosophy
Having just published a voluminous book whose title was inspired by the immortal words of a guy who met his tragic end by having his brains blown out in public :), Steven Pinker argues that despite some obvious fluctuation, violence has seen an overall historical decline over the past few thousand years, and that we are living today in the least violent era our species has ever seen.
That may sound ridiculous to you, what with the world wars of the 20th century and our increasing technological capabilities to wreak havoc in scales our predecessors couldn't have dreamed of, but Pinker is no dummy who argues in lazy generalizations, and he's got plenty of corroborating evidence to make his point.
More interestingly, perhaps, is why violence has declined over time, and if you're already familiar with Pinker's work, you know things are about to get interesting when he starts invoking philosophy, history, evolutionary psychology, economics, cognitive psychology, rational-decision theory and other fascinating disciplines. And as if that weren't stimulating enough, the lecture is followed by a discussion with Matt Ridley and some Q&A.
For more, check out the Steven Pinker tag.
- Steven Pinker - Linguistics As A Window To Understand The Brain
One of the things I first enjoyed when I was introduced to philosophy was its recursive nature: we could use thought to investigate the nature, the rules, the structure and the limits of thought itself (and what that could tell us about the human mind)....
- Tim Minchin's Nine Life Lessons
Although C.P. Snow famously decried the divergence of the two cultures (the sciences and the humanities), we have seen over the years many public intellectuals trying to bridge that gap by writing eloquently and engagingly about the importance, method...
- Steven Pinker - You're Already Committed To Reason
One thing that philosophers love is questions and spirited friendly debate. This dialectical process helps us get a better grasp on various subjects, and though we may not always reach consensus, at the very least we do gain intellectual growth. But this...
- The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial Of Human Nature
"Our conceptions of human nature affect every aspect of our lives, from the way we raise our children to the political movements we embrace. Yet, just as science is bringing us into a golden age of understanding human nature, many people are hostile to...
- Steven Pinker - The Social Role Of Innuendo And Indirect Speech
Would you like to come up to my apartment and see my sketchings? Human social relationships being what they are, I'm sure you've found yourself at some point in the middle of a situation in which you asked yourself why someone else couldn't...
Philosophy
Steven Pinker - The Better Angels of Our Nature
That may sound ridiculous to you, what with the world wars of the 20th century and our increasing technological capabilities to wreak havoc in scales our predecessors couldn't have dreamed of, but Pinker is no dummy who argues in lazy generalizations, and he's got plenty of corroborating evidence to make his point.
More interestingly, perhaps, is why violence has declined over time, and if you're already familiar with Pinker's work, you know things are about to get interesting when he starts invoking philosophy, history, evolutionary psychology, economics, cognitive psychology, rational-decision theory and other fascinating disciplines. And as if that weren't stimulating enough, the lecture is followed by a discussion with Matt Ridley and some Q&A.
For more, check out the Steven Pinker tag.
- Steven Pinker - Linguistics As A Window To Understand The Brain
One of the things I first enjoyed when I was introduced to philosophy was its recursive nature: we could use thought to investigate the nature, the rules, the structure and the limits of thought itself (and what that could tell us about the human mind)....
- Tim Minchin's Nine Life Lessons
Although C.P. Snow famously decried the divergence of the two cultures (the sciences and the humanities), we have seen over the years many public intellectuals trying to bridge that gap by writing eloquently and engagingly about the importance, method...
- Steven Pinker - You're Already Committed To Reason
One thing that philosophers love is questions and spirited friendly debate. This dialectical process helps us get a better grasp on various subjects, and though we may not always reach consensus, at the very least we do gain intellectual growth. But this...
- The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial Of Human Nature
"Our conceptions of human nature affect every aspect of our lives, from the way we raise our children to the political movements we embrace. Yet, just as science is bringing us into a golden age of understanding human nature, many people are hostile to...
- Steven Pinker - The Social Role Of Innuendo And Indirect Speech
Would you like to come up to my apartment and see my sketchings? Human social relationships being what they are, I'm sure you've found yourself at some point in the middle of a situation in which you asked yourself why someone else couldn't...