Understanding Human Nature with Steven Pinker - Conversations with History
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- čas přidán 31. 03. 2014
- (Visit: www.uctv.tv) Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Harvard’s Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, for a discussion of his intellectual journey. Pinker discusses the origins and evolution of his thinking on human nature. Topics include: growing up in Montreal in a Jewish family, the impact of the 1960s, his education, and the trajectory of his research interests. He explains his early work in linguistics and how he came to write his recent work, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. In the conversation, Pinker describes the importance of interdisciplinary research and analyzes creativity. He concludes with a discussion of how science can contribute to the humanities and offers advice to students on how to prepare for the future. Recorded on 02/04/2014. Series: "Conversations with History" [4/2014] [Humanities] [Show ID: 27968]
Pinker is so eloquent without an ounce of pedantic arrogance. Like Orwell did, he values precision in language.
Mr pinker always comes across as a very decent and humble human being, its a real pleasure to listen to him.
Agreed. And he is an optimist, unlike most intellectuals.
I love the distinction he makes between making an idea that's original and an idea that's original and useful. Those are two totally different things.
What a legend. The Blank Slate sent me down a rabbit hole and I’m still chasing it. Truly a life changing book and intellectual in my life. 🙏
Steven Pinker is one of the most respectable and gentle person in the world. Love to see him.
Love how pinker isn’t wrapped up in sounding smart. He is able to convey complexities using plain language
@masa musa It's just efficient communication skills, but a person has to really be on top of their shit to be able to cut to the chase, like that and in a way that resonates.
That's imo the best indicator of someone's full understanding of an issue. The more someone is able to simplify a complex concept without making crucial translational errors that change the essence of the thing they're trying to decribe, the more they understand the issue themselves.
Maybe someone smarter than me can explain it in fewer words :P
Pinker not only knows his technical stuff, he knows his audience. He talks very well to the level of his audience - and that is a skill onto itself. The man deserves his accolades - that’s for sure
@@wallacecleaver4485 what is your problem with these comments, or with Pinkers' ideas and the way in which he communicates them?
@@wallacecleaver4485 excellent. What a compelling argument. Clearly you are far too intelligent to converse with anyone you disagree with.
I find the interviewer's questions too rigid and boring but Steven's answers show how passionate and dedicated he is to his work. So a big like on Steven's part!
I love that there are people like Steven Pinker. Dedicated inhis work and willing to communicate. Thanks
it's a delicate topic and requires and expert to talk. Good stuff
What a wonderful conversation. I’ve listened to many of Prof. Pinker’s talks over the years and I always find him fascinating, lucid, and through provoking. Glad I found this one also.
There are very few people who can speak with such clarity
the best Presentation with Steven Pinker is great.
the level headed, clear, fair intellectual of our time
pinker is brilliant
The combination of his bio and work makes an interview more interesting.
Thank you. One of my favorite realm of science. "We continue to make a world a better place" indeed.
Good interviewer plus the world needs more of Steven Pinker
My *favorite* author!
This was an incredibly informative talk and practical talk for myself, thanks for it.
Thanks för this serie.
His insight about vocation was really interesting 13:42. And 15:17
Steven Pinker is so interesting to listen to.
I don't know how they did this, but the image is crystal clear and beautifully lit. I plays smoothly. I wish other video makers had this skill.
Good lighting and a dark background combined with high quality rendering.
It was a great talk. Thanks a lot for the great content.
Violence begins when an infant learns that objectification and projection is socially included while the meanings of care are socially excluded.
Objectification involves viewing and/or treating a person as an object, devoid of thought or feeling, thereby reducing the person to a surface on which to project unintegrated thoughts and feelings.
Jordan Peterson provides an excellent overt example of the behavior of objectification whereby he actively thinks and speaks about people as if they are objects that have the wrong beliefs and should have the right beliefs (predicated on what he became in reaction to his parents) . In compliance with objectification and projection, Jordan excludes the deprivations of care, thoughts, and feelings, that created his viewpoint.
It is interesting how different disciplines have evolved and how they should influence each other. A holistic interdisciplinary approach to psychology-human nature. 🤔😇😎😉
Brilliant scholar!
What makes us violent? Scarcity
What makes us non violent? Abundance
+Spyrit2011 Wow. If people just read this comment they wouldn't have to read Steven's book. Those 2 lines just explain everything, thank you very much. Seemingly infinite wisdom is contained in those few but brilliant words.
+Spyrit2011 You nailed it.
Nope, read the fall by Steven Taylor
Scarcity and abundance occured regularly during neolithic and palaeolithic times real violence doesn't occur on a grand scale until roughly 4 milinium BC
Yuri Marx Just because there wasn't violence "on a grand scale" that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of violence. Tribes have always fought, and sure maybe each individual case doesn't classify as "grand scale" but altogether there was still plenty of violence.
Also, there are differing ways to create the same outcome as violence creates. If its use is to intimidate, create fear, to dominate, and depending on just who the audience, those receiving said violence, as some love the challenge to address that violence and inflict their own. Also when other ways to do what violence can do, and what many use to fight back, is passive aggression, it may be even worse, just imagine a society whose only action is passive aggression. There, the harm may often be hidden and folks not be aware of the harm someone caused against you with their passive aggression. I think our human realisation, the first 'insight' we have is when our brain realises its ability to project, and then use memory to create an entity, an accumulation of recalled events and an entity that is also created out of present moments. These are the result of that one insight, and it occurs at a time our brains have not gathered the present moments, the events of our lives, good and bad. I think insight itself is a function of the brain just as memory is, but memory itself takes no part in insights, that is a different function of the brain, and perhaps why no matter how you try to use your thoughts to figure things out, it's at a time when the brain is silent, not preparing to be here tomorrow, which is true, but we rarely prepare to not be here, we push off into the future that possibility, since the entity we have created, this 'self is not conducive to entertain its not being here, since foresight is the planning to be here, and most of our brain is spent in some way or another attempting to ensure this entity is here tomorrow that it survives. It is these entities that create the violence, the activity of the self, and of course, my self is more important than your self a biological imperative of the brain, but it can be overcome when you project your self into another's situation with an insight gained from that, which says maybe I can help to ease their suffering, their pain. As the species as young as it is, learns more changes the cerebral cortex can make to override the innate impulses, such as sacrificing yourself to protect your kids, when the biological imperative is to survive, BUT giving your life up for them turns out to likely be why the species has lived as long as it has, and that action is also a removal of violence. Ghandi's idea that we not despair of the uncaring of humans, after all there must be more to have survived who aren't like them, for us to be here. I think human nature doesn't exist as an etching in stone, it's more malleable than that, just llok at the times folks surprise you by doing something against their known personality.
It is the revolution of the mind, consciousness itself that will save us as a species. Part of that will be the realisation of that first insight where we could set ourself apart from even us, and that's called self awareness, if you know you are not very nice to people but that being nice is of great value collectively for the species, for your kids, for your family, then that realisation came from insight, and that is what changes your being not nice, you become less de-valued and others may notice, and how folks react to you also you learn about. I don't think a person has to live decades to gain the insight, that is wisdom we see in experienced people. Some learn by seeing it done and then copying the step, others can read and understand, humans are diverse and we all could be more accepting of others even love them(yes, even the RW, hell many of them love animals), because if you observe them long enough something likable will be seen, these actions have no room for being violent.
Peace
Great interview,
I like Pinker. He strikes me as less of an ideologue than most, I guess, "socially oriented" academics. He makes not pretenses about people not being "blank slates" and understands not only that men and women are different, but also that there are differences among races of human beings. I say in the current academic climate that take massive intellectual honesty balls.
Wwrtu
EswSswwRSrrf
+James Connolly Pinker is Canadian and it shows.
Race?
Race is defined by societies and cultures in ways that do NOT match genetics. However, because genetic makeup varies with geography to some extent, there are genetic differences among groups.
So it depends on what you really mean by race if it 1) exists, and 2) has genetic differences.
The best example of use of this knowledge is to personalize medicine, as different groups have different responses to some kinds of medicines. (and foods).
you appear to ignore that Pinker is not alone in those assumptions.
Great brain to listen to
I really like Steven! He is one very wise and cool gentleman :)
ASMR I love his voice
iTS IS SO GOOD THEMA.
LOVE that this distinguished scientist when to jr college. Very smart move financially.
Good stuff.
i was listening to this while doing something else and I couldn't stop picturing in my head that Joe Pesci is conducting the interview...
While doing something else?!? Ewe, disgusting. Stop picturing things in your head.
This was such a move interview.
Anyone born in 1954, brought up in Sunday 🏫 school, and now an atheist involved in human studies and bringing answers to questions of what matters most to ourselves, has my be vote.
The question that I ponder about is at what point do the input of our sensors; eyesight, touch, smell, hearing, do these things finally become knowledge that is useful in decision making.
I think a lot of people have these questions, the average person but it’s suppressed by the day to day. I think everyone should talk about this for a better understanding of why we have our views, the way we act and react, idk of This makes sense but....
Hoping for a 2022 update.
Grate man grate mind
This is a fascinating meta history.
An intellectual par excellence.
Each the camera moved towards Dr.Harry I felt we moved back to the 1980s
His hair is spectacular.
Really amazing 😻😻
His mind too
His mane is indeed a something to behold to..
“Mankind evolved to write...not to speak.”
That’s confusing because he’s either choosing to dismiss, or completely unaware that nearly 100% of what we regard as the oldest and most-advanced cultures, all-collectively, in similar words state, “The ‘Gods’ gave us writing.”
The Chinese, Sumer, the Egyptians, etc.
And I laughed when he said he was an ‘atheist.’
There’s no such a thing.
We all serve gods...
Founding Fathers would approve of his hair.
That face during introduction lol.
THE LAST QUESTIONS IS BETTER
Technology has improved the human condition in addition to global commerce
Mr Pinker your idea that violence has decreased does not take into account violence like, words, silence, ignorance a slow death that is easy to call something else other than violence. The face of violence has changed but it is so much worse than in the past.
Sticks and stones...
Puss
Pinker is one of the world's most smartest and sexiest of men x
As our ability to modulate brain activity directly ever increases, how long will 'human nature' continue being one thing?
سبق لي أن استمعت للعديد من المداخلات المفيدة في شكل محاضرات او استجوابات مع الأستاذ ستيفان بينكر، إلا انه للمرة الأولى التي اكتشفت فيها أن طبع و ميول هذا الرجل، شبيهة بميولي المعرفية و طبعي المتعطش للعلم، و فضولي المعرفي بخصوص أسرار عمل الدماغ، و معرفة الظروف الاجتماعية و النفسية التي تجعل وجود العباقرة و الفنانين و العلماء و الأدباء و السياسين العظماء ممكانا. الخلاف الكبير بيننا هو أنه نشأ في بيئة اجتماعية متطورة، ساعدته على إبراز مواهبه، بينما أنا لاقيت ظروف مختلفة....
أ
50:28 self control is fear of consequences based on self preservation, If there is no fear of consequence the person will be more likely to perform an act of violence. Furthermore a person who has everything in the world will be less likely to perform violent acts due to fear of losing their possessions.
This intro made me feel like I was watching history
Almost reported for a misleading title. About 2/3 is about steven pinkers biography
10 Jews 11 opinions I have NEVEr heard that before but I laughed. and thats not really a bad thing! I think its amazing to have different opions and spur conversations baised on opinions and facts.
Everything humans does is essentially a part of their nature. You can't just cherry pick a certain aspect of their behavior and call that "natural" or "nature". It's all of it, both good and bad. Then you can argue that there are some bad traits to that "nature" or there are some good traits, and point them out, but essentially every little single thing we do is a part of our "nature". This is how we are designed, and it's very complex, it's something we won't understand anytime soon.
Small world, I went to Dawson too.
Is Dawson any good?
That was nearly 40 yrs. ago, don't know how it is now.
This was a brilliant conversation. I align myself with the philosophies of anarchocapitalism. I agree that anarchism wouldn't work in today's ideological sphere, because in order for anarchism to work, people must have ideas conducive to such a system. For instance, people who believe that "crime" is immoral, wouldn't be affected if it crime became legal--they still wouldn't engage in such behavior. Legalized cigarette smoking is an example of this. I don't smoke due to my ideas on smoking (fear of cancer etc.). But I guess this applies to all ideologies.
I'm not an advocate of disorder, but a believer in self-maintained order through autonomy and liberty. Awesome talk Steven. Love your work.
Does any of you have discord?
Nic...
Does Pinker mention consciousness raising anywhere or spiritual growth?
NO, if you read his book, the blank slate, he clearly states that consciousness is just a product of the brain, nothing spiritual about it. Which doesn't change the fact that it's still an amazing work of the brain.
Cosmopolitan that explains a lot
Knew
He is just one of those smart baby-boomers who have become leading professors and intellectuals. The baby boomers are not only "Woodstock", they form the elite of the societies of US and Europe. I am full of awe for this generation.
The baby boomers are simply the most senior generation that haven't completely retired yet. Soon Gen X will take their place, and after that the millennials will be in charge. It is just seniority based on age.
This documantry seems to be very informative ...
46:25 ; ' what is obvious to you is not obvious to those you are relating 'it' to.
Mr. Pinker has, in this statemen,t made it obvious that he completely understands : ' the biggest flaw in communication is the ILLUSION that it has happened '.
Be as articulate as you can and listen as closely as you can . And even if you are sure you ' get it ' , do it again etc. !
2021
Pinker the Thinker
As opposed to scarcity causing violence, it could be an increase in population that drives an increase in violence. Steven Pinker says it's "not like hunger".. but maybe it is as primal as hunger. Crowd behavior could be related. (Social media could eventually affect our internal assessment of surrounding population.)
Always a pleasure to hear Pinker but the interviewers translucent mustache is more interesting than anything he says
Does nonviolence infer mollification?
This guy seems to have interesting contrasting views- or at least concentrations- compared to that of Theodore Roszak. Datum sounds good.
I might be reading this wrong but he says in one sentence that he doesn't support ethnic political action but then he says he support Zionism which is just that?
No one supports bad things except for when they benefit from it. Nobody supports slavery except for the slavery that builds our phones. Everyone supports building homes for homeless until the building project is designated for their neighborhood then everyone is a NIMBY.
It's not complicated there doesn't need to be a really big discussion about it. "The Reason Why"
Humans do what they do because of self preservation that's the bottom line.
We love to survive
We hate to survive
We eat to survive
We move to certain types of places to survive
We build friendships and relationships to survive
We go to work to survive
Everything that we do intrinsically is meant to survive
The entire permise of humanity is self preservation.
And anyone who disagrees with this is essentially trying to preserve a part of themselves they don't want to be revealed. Again self preservation
I clicked just so I could look at his hair, honestly.
I wonder if new Leonard Cohen while living in Montreal.
more questions here than answers i think
If anyone has more answers than questions than they are lying to you
at 28:30 Prof. Pinker claims that he acts as if it's best to respect the people in the other field when your research takes you in that direction. Look for their blunders. I'd like to know how Prof. Pinker does this, given that the Harvard Library collection is smaller than what can be attained through Online Libraries in gray and black markets. Give us something on your research methods for secondary research, please.
John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities? Emma Goldman
This video should be about "Understanding Human Nature " Why on earth spending so much time explaining the biography of the lecturer?
I did enjoy Pinker's narrative. But at the end, it's the same old problem..which is Deal with the Present in the Hopes of Changing the Future. There are very few people who want to do that, and/or have the endurance for it. And those people typically have such a narrow view of things because they are so heavy into education and intellect that they cant see the forest for the trees.
I believe more than anything, for whatever reason, people desire even need to be a part of something greater than themselves. Why else would anyone fight in a war? At the current moment crime may be dow , but depression and anxiety are not. And in my opinion that is because there isnt something for people to latch on to. Religion is fading. Theres no global crisis. No world war. And thats good. But because of our long history of it all, now we are wandering around without a goal and without an inclusiveness because of the lack of war and global crisis.
Hopefully that made sense.
I think a lot of what you're talking about has a lot to do with age. Younger people are anxious to be someone, do something, be a part of anything. I found now into my 50's that has calmed down. It doesn't have the same draw. Things turn more inward and are satisfactory the way they are.
I can’t stop looking at his hair.
Intelligence
I noticed that Pinker is really boring when he is lecturing but far more interesting when he is being interviewed.
Could do with more substance, less biography.
zacharycat How is ones bio of no substance? In order to understand yourself you must understand why you think hearing ones history not relevant to their knowledge and expression of such knowledge. If you listen there is much substance.
To me it is, for two reasons: One is me judging a person via his idea not his achievement nor background (It's kind of a filter, only when the idea pick my interest will i look at what led the author to think that way)
the other is to avoid being influenced by the authority shadow( when a person present themselves as an important figure you will favor his say and twist it to make it give a more positive impact, it's subconscious so we can just avoid it by anticipation).
As dicarte once said: "Talk so i can see you".
Agreed. Is this some oral history project? I hoped for more ideas, less history.
It's the fault of the interviewer. He was wasting Steven and our time.
Agreed, title is so misleading
Kreisler: "So even at 14 you were something of a thinker?" as if thinking was something that is discovered with age! One learns (or doesn't) how to think effectively, but one is born a thinker or not (it's the IQ ;-))
If Steve new Leonard?
This guy is baller status.
without violence, we wouldn´t be around. nature is the answer, humans are not the answer, we are the product.
We aren't the product we are the manifacturers. Our purpose is to create AI and become obsolete.
8:05 and 8:07 the engine turning over.
Thinker Pinker
Steven Pinker for Prime Minister
2:08 he just called himself baby boomer
He is. What is your point?
The terms 'baby boomer' or 'boomer' are popular labels for his generation, and are simply based on when he was born. Same as the terms Gen. X, and millennial. Your generation just describes when you were born/your age.
@@j-r-m7775 ok boomer
@@robertferguson5562 what does that mean Rob?
@@j-r-m7775 it means what evah or okie dokie or what ever you say baby boomer.
That's a Billy Crystal character isn't it.
don't see those as human nature; jealousy etc; like you said they arise from unfavourable condition or conditions that are not balanced.
what makes violent and none violence? The two are a reflection
1. Those conditions referred to above
2. Sheer curiousity that started it, then the resultant knowledge that it does give you what you want by taking what other wants/needs [for the devil was only temporal in his knowledge]= imbalanced= not sustainable
3. It was not sustainable, and we still have in living memory violent acts, not like someone is telling us about it and we don't believe it. This act of immediate knowledge is powerful in terms of evidence against the none sustainability and long-term pointlessness of it.
4 what changes? The power of evidence in living memory. And primarily the use of those cognitive things, that need not see evidence before we believe, that it having been thought out would have revealed itself as not sustainable. Like you said, using our talents, and productively
p:s you mention police; but we are endowed with genetic morality, i.e those cognitive talents. And you neglect to imagine that the police themselves have been a force for violence all over history. So, point rejected
Another; how do you differentiate discipline from academia. Indeed, academia is a worse state than discipline, when there is life. In so far there are areas of things to do, like areas of the human brain itself, human occupies it and does it with the violence of the barriers of disciplines and academia. Indeed, you say that you must interdiscipline, meaning breaking those artificial walls of academia and disciplines. Disciplines are a fluid things; though at a time they appear located, the movement across them is human an d most natural, needing not a violent enforcement of its walls that assaults human intellect and hinders human talent.
Could you be any more opaque?
yes, no, maybe,; what's d point?
@@kassandraechebima2851 I don't know of any natural species that lives in the state of balance or equality that you suggest should be natural.
Every species naturally has a significant amount of individual variability that cannot be equalised without major unnatural interventions.
Some individuals are larger, some smaller, some stronger, some weaker, some faster, some slower, some more intelligent, some less so, etc, etc.
We can engineer a system that gives each individual an equal chance of success, but it's not possible to naturally create an equal outcome for every individual. Some individuals will always end up being more successful, popular, or more attractive to the opposite sex than others. And the less successful individuals will often end up being jealous of those who are more successful than them. Just look at the various animal species in nature, and you can see what is natural. In every natural societal group there is always a social hierarchy.
The question to Mr. Pinker is can we understand our minds through analysis and through accumulation of knowledge from any field. Since he has done so much research and analysis on human mind through so many fields dose he totally understands himself, which he calls human nature? If he dose not understand himself by knowing so much, then why he thinks that his books or his information will help others to understand themselves, or their nature? Also his definition of violence is very limited to a gross violence like killing, rape, torture, and so on, but he dose not see the violence in himself as an ambitious, competitive, selfish person, and so on..........So with all his expertise and knowledge he has not understood the human problem, which is himself and without understanding the problem one cannot solve that problem.
Eddie Bakhtiari Pinker completely ignores the soft violence of white genocide. Multiculturalism is a code word for anti-white. White populations are shrinking worldwide through a willful process in mass immigration and abortion.
lorem ipsum White populations are shrinking through a process of abortion? Seriously? Are you the last member of the Kukuks-clan?
wink3319
There's more to it than just abortion, and abortion itself is probably the wrong point of attack on the problem.
Not to mention, the problem isn't strictly limited to white people being replaced by non-whites. It's also true that, just in general, high-achieving individuals have too few children compared to low-achieving individuals, and any socially responsible solution to the problem of white genocide would almost certainly also have to address this wider problem as well.
OptimalOwl Abortion is the wrong point to attack the problem? I fully agree.
But my main concern is: You are using the term GENOCIDE completely wrong. You did observe correctly that industrialized countries tend to have too low birth rates to keep their populations from shrinking. That has nothing to do with genocide. A shrinking population due to low birth rate is a completely different phenomenon than a population being wiped out violently. Historical examples of genocides would be the holocaust or the genocide of native american Indians by the mostly white immigrants to the newly established USA.
Another thing you saw wrong: shrinking populations due to low birth rates is not a problem limited to mainly caucasian societies in North America, Europe or Australia. The same happens to the Japanese. But then again: Let us assume that due to low birth rates the caucasian population of our species eventually dies out. What exactly would be wrong about that? Why is that an issue?
OptimalOwl The Caucasians are our people and we want them to do well? I am Caucasian but I don't see Caucasians as "my people" for whom I feel any more affection than for Asians or Africans. What you are promoting here is tribalism - as if the different ethnic groups were a bunch of tribes that we have to associate with. Quite frankly, I didn't hear such statements since the rule of the National Socialists in Germany way back when. And then, what culture are you talking about? The European culture? The USA? Neither would be a Caucasian culture. But I get back to that later.
I do agree with you on one subject: For whatever reason, it was in Europe where the philosophy of enlightenment and liberalism developed with its definition of human rights. There are tons of theories of why it happened in Europe rather than the middle east or China. But quite frankly, it doesn't really matter. It is a philosophical achievement that was bound to happen. It would have to happen in one place and it would be highly unlikely to happen in more than one place at a time (in particular in light of the speed of developments since then).
The point is though, that even though the philosophy of enlightenment was developed in Europe (and not to a small part the USA) that doesn't mean that the Europeans were any better people than any other folks around. Nor does it mean that we need a Caucasian population to carry on with the idea. In fact, if over time the population of Europe would become all black or Arab and the Caucasian population were to die out that doesn't mean that the achievements of the enlightenment would die along with it.
Furthermore, the main value behind the enlightenment and liberalism is the value of human rights. The concept that we build our government to service the people and to enable everybody to be happy whichever way that the individual pleases without hurting others. That would be the opposite from worrying about how many Caucasian folks are around or whether they breed enough to keep up with other ethnic groups. It is up to everyone (and in particular every woman) to decide how many children they want to have and whatever that means for society as a whole we have to deal with. If that means that the white folks will go the way of the mammoth then there is absolutely nothing wrong about it as long as the white individuals chose this outcome freely.
Steben Pinker...
Hehe. Very interesting anyway. :)
Imagine him working at Starbucks in small town USA...
Human nature is a material fascination in existential polarity to ego and identity in a moral dilemma
+Wayland Porter Well said, friend.