Humanists UK to host Steven Pinker on topic of new book, ‘Rationality’

22 September, 2022

World-renowned cognitive psychologist Professor Steven Pinker will speak for Humanists UK at a special event in London on Wednesday 12 October, to mark the publication of the paperback edition of this latest book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters. Tickets are available to purchase now.

Those keen to attend are encouraged to book immediately. Early Bird tickets sold out this week within an hour, and previous Humanists UK events at which Pinker spoke sold out completely.

In this lecture, Steven Pinker will reject the cynical cliché that humans are simply an irrational species – cavemen out of time fatally cursed with biases, fallacies, and illusions. Instead, he will explain, we think in ways that suit the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning we have built up over millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, causal inference, and decision-making under uncertainty.

Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now.

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Pinker is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, and one of Foreign Policy’s ‘World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals’ and Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People in the World Today’. He was Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and writes frequently for the New York Times, the Guardian, and other publications.

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For further comment or information, media should contact Humanists UK Director of Public Affairs and Policy Richy Thompson at press@humanists.uk or phone 020 7324 3072 or 020 3675 0959.

Humanists UK is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people. Powered by 100,000 members and supporters, we advance free thinking and promote humanism to create a tolerant society where rational thinking and kindness prevail. We provide ceremonies, pastoral care, education, and support services benefitting over a million people every year and our campaigns advance humanist thinking on ethical issues, human rights, and equal treatment for all.