Steven Pinker Quotes

If the individual, or heretic, gets hold of some essential truth, or sees some error in the system being practiced, he commits so many marginal errors himself that he is worn out before he can establish his point.

Socrates was executed … not for his megalomania or grandiose propositions or certitudes, but for stubbornly doubting the absolute truths of others.

I like reading things where someone's looked at what I do with some honesty, and maybe been challenged by it, and they have something to say that shows they've thought about it, even if they don't necessarily like it.

We need people to point out groupthink - We need people to point out stale, old, dumb thinking - and we sometimes need to do that when it's considered dangerous, strange, or, by some, offensive. And we should be, all of us, trying to protect that. It's really important.

Human beings understand themselves and shape their futures by arguing and challenging and questioning and saying the un-sayable, not by bowing the knee whether to gods or to men.

The faithful witness, like...Socrates, Voltaire, and Swift and Christ himself, is at his best when he is questioning and clarifying and avoiding the specialists obsession with solution. He betrays society when he is silent...He is true to himself and to people when his clarity causes disquiet.

We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs.

Authority in science exists to be questioned, since heresy is the spring from which new ideas flow.

It is our job to ask the questions that make everybody uncomfortable.

I think most people like a bit of freedom and hearing things that they might not agree with, rather than just having everybody shutting their mouths.

I actually find it a lot easier to interview people I don't agree with because I'm far more curious about how they've arrived at that place.

Whoever has once been truly unsettled by a work of the imagination will never give loyalty to a single idea, belief system, religious faith or party.

I had to read Plato and Kant, and at times I was overwhelmed. But I have always been fearless, and so was Hannah Arendt. She wasn't afraid to speak out when she knew her opinions would not be popular because she believed in the public discourse above all.

I have a suspicion of lockstep and everyone looking in the same direction: that's a key character trait in me.

I have contrarian tendencies.

Reminding oneself that not all rules are good rules and sometimes it's good to challenge them is an important part of being an effective parliamentarian.

One of my favorite teachers is Osho, mainly because he liked to push people's buttons just to get them to think and live outside of their comfort zone.

A ContraPoints video is never going to be framed as 'I'm so offended by this idea.' It's not, 'I'm so intimidated by my opponent's big, masculine brain.' It's more, 'I'm bored of you, and also, you're a dum-dum.'

Some people spend their time reasoning and thinking out everything, and so anything that cannot be fully understood, they will not accept. We call these people 'intellectuals.'

I like debate and argument, so I'm usually all right with disagreement, and I'm even all right if the critic doesn't come to a clear thumbs up or thumbs down. But I need the disagreement to have some kind of line I can follow on the map. I like following an interesting mind along it.

I was 7 years old, and I challenged everything. I never accepted answers on face value.

Progress is born of doubt and inquiry. The Church never doubts, never inquires. To doubt is heresy, to inquire is to admit that you do not know—the Church does neither.

Whenever you write on a subject that questions the status quo, there are bound to be many who wrestle with the issues

Any acceptance of authority is the very denial of truth.

Philosophy itself cannot but benefit from our disputes, for if our conceptions prove true, new achievements will be made; if false, their refutation will further confirm the original doctrines.