Rationality
What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
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Rationality
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Narrated by:
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Arthur Morey
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By:
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Steven Pinker
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it help you understand why there is so much irrationality in the world? These are the goals of Rationality, Steven Pinker's follow-up to Enlightenment Now.
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-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, quack cures and conspiracy theorising?
Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are an irrational species - cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies and illusions. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives and set the benchmarks for rationality itself. Instead, he explains that we think in ways that are sensible in the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning we have built up over the millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation and decision-making. These tools are not a standard part of our educational curricula and have never been presented clearly and entertainingly in a single book - until now.
Rationality also explores its opposite: how the rational pursuit of self-interest, sectarian solidarity and uplifting mythology by individuals can add up to crippling irrationality in a society. Collective rationality depends on 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. Brimming with insight and humour, Rationality will enlighten, inspire and empower.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Steven Pinker (P)2021 Penguin AudioWhat listeners say about Rationality
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Louis Cohalan
- 09-06-2022
Good but not his best
Good defense of our rational faculties from the assault from pop psychology but it quotes so much from Kahneman, you may as well read Thinking Fast and Slow before this. For a dose of Pinker’s brilliance I recommend Better Angels… and The Blank Slate before this one.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Stefan Mackay
- 10-09-2022
this book is probably better read
Reading would give you more time to absorb the concepts.
listening to it, the pace is too fast for your mind to absorb one concept before the next is upon you.
I'm going to get the paper version.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 25-02-2022
Not as good as some of SPs other work
Too basic (though I do have an advanced Sci background) and not enough new/interesting content.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Fantastic quality
- 04-10-2021
essential
Just like any other work from Pinker, a very good book, essential for critical thinking skills. Highly recommend it
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 16-01-2022
A candle into the darkness
Clear, concise and illuminating. The fruit of a great mind read by a great voice. Read it. Tell someone to read it too.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anthony Gill
- 19-01-2022
Important summary of why rationality matters
A book to put in the hands of anyone who is interested in critical thinking, problem solving and reasoned argument. A cool and lucid analysis of human knowledge and how we acquired it, related with astonishing clarity and not a little humour. Pinker’s majestic synthetic sweeps of intellectual history are very much the fruit of a team effort, which one can find acknowledgement of in the preface, nonetheless, the manner in which he has relentlessly corralled the most pertinent and important arguments for each question he considers is awe inspiring. An antidote to alienation for the thinking individual, I would and will recommend this to anyone.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- mokagio
- 31-12-2022
Too much math and politics
I had high expectations coming in, but I felt like half of the book explained mathematical tools that only partially apply to every day decision making. All the examples from politics didn’t help, because they gave the book a tone that I’m sure some folks will use to discredit it, despite the whole point of the book being to teach us how to look past opinions and into facts.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- AHP
- 11-10-2022
Good to Read. Not Good to Listen
It's a very 'technical' read. The author goes into the scientific and mathematical proofs of rationality really early on in the book.
Although fascinating, it was hard to follow along by just listening. I couldn't finish it.
If this type of material is your bag, I'd suggest the print version may be better suited.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- W. Lang
- 19-02-2022
Better read than listened to given the underlying
complexity and wide ranging terminology, would benefit from a laymans version for helping the reader make the case to their friends
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- norah
- 21-05-2022
Amazing
One of the best book I’ve ever read. Cannot recommend enough, if one wants to grow, learn more and excel in whatever field one is an expert of. This book is applicable to any intellectual part of your life.
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