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  • Rationality

  • What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
  • Written by: Steven Pinker
  • Narrated by: Arthur Morey
  • Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (101 ratings)

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Rationality

Written by: Steven Pinker
Narrated by: Arthur Morey
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Publisher's Summary

Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it help us understand why there is so much irrationality in the world? Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now (Bill Gates’ "new favorite book of all time”) answers all the questions here.

Today humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and also 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, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? 

Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are simply irrational - 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 out the benchmarks for rationality itself. We actually 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’ve discovered over the millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation, and optimal ways to update beliefs and commit to choices individually and with others. These tools are not a standard part of our education, 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 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 Pinker’s customary insight and humor, Rationality will enlighten, inspire, and empower.

This audiobook includes a PDF of charts and graphs.

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 Audio

What the critics say

“An impassioned and zippy introduction to the tools of rational thought… Punchy, funny and invigorating.” (The Times, London)

“An engaging analysis of the highest of our faculties and perhaps (ironically) the least understood.” (The Wall Street Journal)

“If you’ve ever considered taking drugs to make yourself smarter, read Rationality instead.” (Jonathan Haidt, New York Times best-selling co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind)

"Erudite, lucid, funny and dense with fascinating material... A pragmatic dose of measured optimism, presenting rationality as a fragile but achievable ideal in personal and civic life.... It’s no small achievement to make formal logic, game theory, statistics and Bayesian reasoning delightful topics full of charm and relevance." (The Washington Post)

What listeners say about Rationality

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Dull and Underwhelming .

The whole book is really dry and has no compelling vision behind it. Just a bunch of intellectual blather about why rationality is so good. I enjoyed his previous book much better .

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Great book

I really liked this book. Super interesting subject that is thoroughly thought through and we’ll articulated.
Great work SP!

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Another brilliant tome

Although touching on a somewhat drier topic than some of his other books, Pinker has again succeeded in creating a impelling and strangely inspirational account of the topic and how it fits into the modern day and gives hope for the future. He shows how, despite our imperfect nature, humans are not doomed to irrationality and associated misery. He walks the reader through basic ideas of logic, statistics, and history to show how rationality has been a great blessing to humanity and should be nurtured. Even his treatment of the proponents of irrationality are treated respectfully, although there is the occasional dig and some of the more absurd on both the left and right of the political spectrum. I suspect if one is far in either political direction one might find his voice of reason to be offensive, however.

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The Reasons Rationality is Relevant

Many Marxists will argue “Feels Over Reals!” And fail to see the argument in their mantra.

We need to consider how people feel as only one part of many in our decision making, not as the only part.

Rationality has been attacked by those who would crown themselves the altruistic moral authorities of our times so that we lose sight of logic and won’t be able to see the holes in their narcissistic views.

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Very good listen

Really like Steven Pinker books, this one continues with important themes. Explaining biases, misunderstandings about stats and probability and incorporating works of Kahneman and Tversky. Well reasoned and explained with terrific insights. Found it tough to follow on audio at times, maybe I’ll listen again.

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Steven Pinker delivered again

Steven Pinker deliver it again yet another spectacular book containing true insights data and pure rationality. I assume it hasn't been lost on him the meta nature of this book.

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