Is Democracy Rational? A conversation with Steven Pinker

<p>Human beings routinely make terrible choices but humanity still achieves amazing things. </p> <p>How does this paradox work? </p> <p>And is it still working when technology seems to amplify the worst in us.</p> <p>In this episode, Politics on the Couch host Rafael Behr talks to Professor Steven Pinker about the constant struggle between evidence and emotion for control of the political agenda; whether truth and fact are winning the long war against superstition and falsehood, and why rationality always has the last word.</p> <p>Professor Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the author of a number of highly acclaimed and prize-winning books about psychology, cognitive science, linguistics and history. </p> <p>His latest book Rationality: What it is; why it seems scarce; why it matters was published in September.</p> <p><a href="https://stevenpinker.com/publications/rationality-what-it-why-it-seems-so-scarce-and-why-it-matters" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://stevenpinker.com/publications/rationality-what-it-why-it-seems-so-scarce-and-why-it-matters</a></p> <p><strong>More about Steven Pinker:</strong></p> <p><a href="https://stevenpinker.com/biocv" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://stevenpinker.com/biocv</a></p> <p><strong>Other books by Steven Pinker mentioned in episode </strong></p> <p><strong>The Better Angels of our Nature </strong></p> <p><a href="https://stevenpinker.com/publications/better-angels-our-nature" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://stevenpinker.com/publications/better-angels-our-nature</a></p> <p><strong>Enlightenment Now </strong> <a href="https://stevenpinker.com/publications/enlightenment-now-case-reason-science-humanism-and-progress" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://stevenpinker.com/publications/enlightenment-now-case-reason-science-humanism-and-progress</a></p> <p>A couple of references in this episode that might be useful as further reading