Rationality is what keeps us sane in the messiness of life. Being able to stay rational through a difficult time, or just for as long as a simple argument, is a sort of safety vest we can wear to not ...

Man is born smart, and everywhere he lacks brains. So, minus The Social Contract’s gendered language, might Steven Pinker have opened Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. For someone who so frequently and serenely proclaims that he’s right, Steven Pinker can get ...

Steven Pinker’s new bestseller, “Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters,” is filled with riddles and quizzes and problems to ponder. Reading it, I bombed on every single one. The ...

These two perspectives are in disagreement about what counts as rational—and why that matters for policy. Consider a few familiar examples. Frame the same medical procedure as having a 90% survival ...

People’s choices are often found to be inconsistent with the assumptions of rational choice theory. Over time, several probabilistic models have been proposed that account for such deviations from ...

Suppose you toss a coin and get four heads in a row – what do you think will come up on the fifth toss? Many of us have a gut feeling that a tails is due. This feeling, called the Gambler’s Fallacy, ...

Imagine a future society in which everything is perfectly logical. What could go wrong? “Scientism” is the belief that all we need to solve the world’s problems is – you guessed it – science. People ...