LEADER 00000pam  2200301 i 4500 
003    DLC 
005    20210916102518.4 
008    210216s2021    nyua     b    001 0 eng   
010      2021003592 
020    9780525561996|q(hardcover) 
040    DLC|beng|erda|cDLC|dGCmBT|dUtOrBLW 
042    pcc 
082 00 153.4/2|223 
092    153.42|bPIN 
100 1  Pinker, Steven,|d1954-|eauthor. 
245 10 Rationality :|bwhat it is, why it seems scarce, why it 
       matters /|cSteven Pinker. 
264  1 [New York] :|bViking,|c[2021] 
300    xvii, 412 pages :|billustrations ;|c24 cm 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
504    Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-388) and 
       indexes. 
520    "Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it explain
       why there seems to be so much irrationality in the world, 
       including, let's be honest, in each of us? These are the 
       goals of Steven Pinker's follow-up to Enlightenment Now 
       (Bill Gates's "new favorite book of all time"). Humans 
       today are often portrayed as cavemen out of time, poised 
       to react to a lion in the grass with a suite of biases, 
       blind spots, fallacies, and illusions. But this, Pinker a 
       cognitive scientist and rational optimist argues, cannot 
       be the whole picture. Hunter-gatherers--our ancestors and 
       contemporaries--are not nervous rabbits but cerebral 
       problem-solvers. A list of the ways in which we are stupid
       cannot explain how we're so smart: how we discovered the 
       laws of nature, transformed the planet, and lengthened and
       enriched our lives. Indeed, if humans were fundamentally 
       irrational, how did they discover the benchmarks for 
       rationality against which humans fall short? The topic 
       could not be more timely. 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 sequenced the genome and detected the Big 
       Bang produce so much fake news, quack cures, conspiracy 
       theories, and "post-truth" rhetoric? A big part of 
       Rationality is to explain these tools--to inspire an 
       intuitive understanding of the benchmarks of rationality, 
       so you can understand the basics of logic, critical 
       thinking, probability, correlation and causation, the 
       optimal ways to adjust our beliefs and commit to decisions
       with uncertain evidence, and the yardsticks for making 
       rational choices alone and with others. Rationality 
       matters. 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. Steven Pinker, the great defender of human 
       progress, having documented how the world is not falling 
       apart, now shows how we can enhance rationality in our 
       lives and in the public sphere. Rationality is the perfect
       toolkit to seize our own fates"--|cProvided by publisher. 
650  0 Critical thinking. 
650  0 Practical reason. 
650  0 Choice (Psychology)