logic

Today it’s great to have Steven Pinker on the podcast. Dr. Pinker is the Johnstone professor of psychology at Harvard University. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and the winner of many awards for his research, teaching, and books. He’s been elected to the National Academy of Science, and named as one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People”, and one of Foreign Policy’s “100 Leading Global Thinkers”. His books include How the Mind Works, The Blank State, The Stuff of Thought, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, Enlightenment Now, and most recently, Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.  In this episode, I talk to Steven about the definition of rationality, how it relates to truth, and how it’s different from logic. We also discuss the trade-offs in decision making, the limited usefulness of strategic irrationality, the boundaries of socially acceptable fiction, and why people have weird beliefs among other things.

Website: stevenpinker.com
Twitter: @sapinker

Topics

01:02 Must we always follow reason? 

03:34 Steven’s definition of rationality 

05:24 Tension between conflicting goals 

08:31 What is truth? 

13:12 When to apply logic or rationality 

23:14 There can be no trade-off between rationality and justice 

25:35 Politicizing knowledge and research 

29:24 Strategic irrationality has limits 

36:13 Taboo trade-offs, heretical counterfactuals, and forbidden base rates 

42:04 The changing norms of acceptable fiction 

45:56 Why rationality is cool 

49:39 The costs of decision making 

55:54 Progress came from utilitarian reasoning 

57:52 "The pandemic of poppycock" 

01:01:23 Expressive rationality: morally empowering beliefs 

01:05:26 Bayesian reasoning 
 

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Bobby Hall (aka Logic) (@Logic301) is a Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling recording artist, actor, streamer, film producer, and author of NYT best-seller Supermarket and his latest, This Bright Future: A Memoir.

What We Discuss with Bobby Hall (aka Logic):

• Why Logic's good memories of childhood make him sad.
• The challenges of living with cervical dystonia.
• Why Logic was suicidal when his song 1-800-273-8255 became a big hit (and what stopped him from going through with it).
• How Logic got his career started like so many of us: in a '90s rap battle chat room.
• Why Logic found the story about Helen Keller's education to be particularly inspiring.
• And much more...

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/563

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Stuff to Blow Your Mind frequently discusses thought experiments on the show, from Schrödinger's Cat to the Infinity Hotel. But what constitutes a thought experiments? How long have they been around and what are the seven categories? Robert Lamb and Joe McCormick explore… 

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