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Maybe someday
46
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
30/100Critics
10/100Scholars
99/100Author:
Steven Pinker
Publisher:
Viking
Date:
September 28, 2021
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? Rationality also explores how the rational pursuit of self-interest, sectarian solidarity, and uplifting mythology can add up to crippling irrationality in a society.
What The Reviewers Say
... strong and optimistic claims about the value of rationality at a moment in history that seems to have turned its back on logic and rationality. And in these pages he makes perfectly clear that he’s not dealing in empty rhetoric.
For someone who used to write sparkling books on language and the mind, Pinker has also become a player in the culture wars. The subject of this book might seem innocent—a worthy attempt to rein in the madness of the post-truth era. Some, though, will perceive it as a provocation.
For someone who so frequently and serenely proclaims that he’s right, Steven Pinker can get curiously defensive.
In recent years it has become more fashionable to dismiss Pinker as a naive whig than to laud him as an inspiring prophet.
