Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it help us understand why there is so much irrationality in the world? These are the goals of Rationality, Steven Pinker’s follow-up to Enlightenment Now (Bill Gates’s “new favorite book of all time”).
The topic is urgent. In the 21st century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding—and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for Covid in less than a year produce so much fake news, quack cures, conspiracy theories, and “post-truth” rhetoric?
Pinker, a cognitive scientist and advocate of human progress, rejects the cynical cliché that humans are an irrational species—cavemen out of time who are poised to react to a lion in the grass with a suite of biases, fallacies, and illusions. After all, we are the species that discovered the laws of nature, transformed the planet, lengthened and enriched our lives, and, not least, discovered the benchmarks for rationality itself.
Pinker explains that we think in ways that are sensible in the low-tech, face-to-face contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning our best thinkers have discovered over the millennia. No one can claim to be truly educated unless they command these tools: logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation, and the optimal ways to adjust beliefs, commit to decisions, and coordinate choices with others in conditions of uncertainty.
But these tools are not a standard part of our educational curricula, and they have never been presented in a single book in a clear and inviting way—until now.
Rationality also explores its opposite. It explains the Tragedy of the Rationality Commons: how the rational pursuit of self-interest, sectarian solidarity, and uplifting mythology by individuals can add up to crippling irrationality in the society as a whole. Collective rationality depends on having rules and norms that are explicitly designed to promote objectivity and truth.
Rationality matters. It leads to better choices in our lives and in the public sphere, and is the ultimate driver of social justice and moral progress.
As the world reels from foolish choices made in the past and dreads a future that may be shaped by senseless choices in the present, rationality may be the most important asset that citizens and influencers command. Brimming with insight, humor, and unforgettable examples, Rationality can enlighten, inspire, and empower.
