The Life Of The Mind by Steven Pinker

In his latest and last episode of the series, Steven Pinker discusses his magisterial book, Enlightenment Now.

According to Steven, humanism, reason, and science—the three pillars of enlightenment, has historically fueled enormous advancement in virtually every facet of life and are our best hope for sustaining it in the future.

In season one of ‘The Life Of The Mind’, Steven Pinker tackles everything from psychological experiments to language.

With an interesting look into charity and generosity as a whole, Steven Pinker refers to Moses Maimonedes’s theory on the eight rungs of generosity in this new episode.

Donating for a good cause is never a bad idea, but why is it important to assess the situation and understand the process? With common knowledge in human communication evolving with us, we are all aware of the need for transaction with everything we do. As such, a particularly charitable act could come with a hefty invisible price tag if you don’t read the room.

Join the conversation as Pinker helps us understand why the payoff to charity exists, and how we can think our way around it.

Needless to say that evolution is responsible for all of our physical and psychological characteristics.

In this episode, Steven delves into evolutionary psychology, the study of behavior, thought, and emotion viewed through the lens of evolutionary biology.

He talks about our own adaptabilities throughout evolution as well as how human behaviors are influenced by physical and psychological predispositions that helped human ancestors survive and reproduce.

In episode Ten, the viewers will hear about the main components of language, and how varying tonalities come together to create meaningful communication between people despite their abstract pathways.

Do you want to know what brain impairments affect one's ability to speak? Hear it from Pinker himself.