Is There a Darwinian Process of Differential Survival of Replicators?

Steven Pinker has spent an entire academic career thinking deeply about language, cognition, and human nature. Driving it all, he says, is an Enlightenment belief that the world is intelligible, science can progress, and through rational inquiry we can better understand ourselves.

He recently joined Tyler for a conversation not only on the power of reason, but also the economics of irrational verbs, whether violence will continue to decline, behavioral economics, existential threats, the merits of aerobic exercise, photography, group selection, Fermi’s paradox, Noam Chomsky, universal grammar, free will, the Ed Sullivan show, and why people underrate the passive (or so it is thought).

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. 

Other ways to connect

• Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Tyler on Twitter 
• Follow Steven on Twitter
• Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
• Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.