The natural world is ruled by something like cause and effect. The laws of nature haven't changed, so our minds are fully determined. On the other hand, there is so much a unpredictability, non linearity, that for all intents and purposes, we're not determined. But some things that are true in theory are so mind bogglingly complicated ey may as well not be true in theory.
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