Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
The final book I read for the 2021 NONFICTION READER CHALLENGE in the category Published in 2021 is Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters , by Steven Pinker, 2021. Steven Pinker is a cognitive psychologist at Harvard University and has written 8 books for general audiences on topics such philosophy, social relations and language. Being interested in language and how it develops, I’ve read his books The Language Instinct and The Sense of Style . I found that his writing is coherent and thought-provoking, so I wanted to try another theme and “rationality” seems particularly appropriate these days when it does, indeed, seem scarce. His book is structured in such a way that each chapter builds on the ideas and information in the previous ones. He starts with a focus on the ways that ‘rationality’ can be defined, and how it is evident or lacking in human beings. His examples include many logic problems, with explanations of why so many people cannot solve the pr