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Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
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About This Book
Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it help us understand why there is so much irrationality in the world? These are the goals of Rationality, Steven Pinker's follow-up to Enlightenment Now (Bill Gates's new favorite book of all time"). In the 21st century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding--and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for Covid-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? Pinker rejects the cynical clich� that humans are an irrational species--cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies, and illusions. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives, and discovered the benchmarks for rationality itself. Instead, he explains that we think in ways that are sensible in the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning our best thinkers have discovered over the millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation, and optimal ways to update beliefs and commit to choices individually and with others. These tools are not a standard part of our educational curricula, and have never been presented clearly and entertainingly in a single book--until now. Rationality also explores its opposite: how the rational pursuit of self-interest, sectarian solidarity, and uplifting mythology by individuals can add up to crippling irrationality in a society. Collective rationality depends on norms that are explicitly designed to promote objectivity and truth. Rationality matters. It leads to better choices in our lives and in the public sphere, and is the ultimate driver of social justice and moral progress.. Brimming with insight and humour, Rationality will enlighten, inspire, and empower.
Reviews
"Doctor, heal thyself!"
"This book offers further training in rationality as a life skill, and a tool of fairness ..."
"It's no small achievement to make formal logic, game theory, statistics and Bayesian reasoning delightful topics full of charm and relevance ..."
"For devotees of the smart thinking genre, much of this is familiar ..."
"Pinker skewers all manner of misguided thinking, myths, and 'cockamamie conspiracy theories' across the ideological spectrum ..."
"Pinker doesn't discuss physics."
"Nonetheless, it wouldn't be rational to underestimate the lure of the irrational."
"You might think it was impossible to exaggerate the popularity of ill-founded beliefs, but Pinker does manage it."
"The tone of Rationality isn't as relentlessly chipper as that of the previous book, but Pinker's optimism seems to have weathered the Trump years and the pandemic largely intact."
"The author can be heady and geeky, but seldom to the point that his discussions shade off into inaccessibility ..."
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