enlightenment

Podcast #169: Harvard Professor Steven Pinker on Rational Thinking, the Monty Hall Problem, and the Case for Objective Truth
Enlightenment Now author Steven Pinker speaks with Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about his newly published book, Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

Be Rational
Rationality is uncool. To describe someone with a slang word for the cerebral, like nerd, wonk, geek, or brainiac, is to imply they are terminally challenged in hipness. For decades, Hollywood screenplays and rock-song lyrics have equated joy and freedom with an escape from reason. “A man needs a little

Enlightenment Wars: Some Reflections on 'Enlightenment Now,' One Year Later
You wouldn’t think that a defense of reason, science, and humanism would be particularly controversial in an era in which those ideals would seem to need all the help they can get. But in the words of a colleague, “You’ve made people’s heads explode!” Many people who