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January 13, 2022

Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker joined us on January 13, 2022 for a thought-provoking, members-only discussion on how sectarian solidarity and our pursuit of self-interest has led to the demise of objectivity, truth, and collective rationality.

 

Irshad Manji

Lisa Feldman Barrett

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BIG IDEAS. SMART CONVERSATION.

Steven Pinker is one of the world’s best-known and admired cognitive psychologists. A professor at Harvard, he conducts research on language, cognition, and social relations. He is also a multiple, internationally bestselling author. His Munk Dialogue on the fate and future of truth and collective rationality took place on January 13, 2022.

This event is available to Munk Members only. Membership is free. Visit our Membership page here to explore our membership options and privileges. If you are already a member, log on using your membership credentials to view the Dialogue video.

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The Guests

Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now.

He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, and one of Foreign Policy’s “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” and Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” He was Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and writes frequently for the New York Times, the Guardian, and other publications. His twelfth book, published in September 2021, is called Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.