We both have advanced degrees in psychology (in fact, we shared the same wonderful doctoral adviser, the late Roger Brown). We both had excellent educations-college and graduate school-and we both teach at Harvard, a prestigious university. Though I am more than a decade older, we are both white Jewish males from families that valued education (and that also valued families!). Steven Pinker (to his friends and colleagues, Steve hereafter, Pinker) and I have much in common. Yet I also have significant reservations that the book will succeed in its aspiration-that by helping people to be more rational, the world will necessarily be a better place. I find myself in agreement with much of the book. It is a thorough and careful discussion of what rationality is (and what it’s not)-and a ringing endorsement of the positive role of rationality throughout human history-and going forward.
This was certainly the case with respect to his recently published Rationality. Many persons, including me, look forward to each new book by Steven Pinker.
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