Word: pinkering
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Usually sagacious, Steven Pinker writes like a philistine about faith and reason (“Less Faith, More Reason,” op-ed, Oct. 27). What is faith? Ill-founded belief, he writes, anathema to the university. What is reason? “Pure and simple...
...only it were really so simple. Pinker writes as though philosophy were a dead letter, faith a kind of retardation, and religion a form of mass insanity. He may well believe that, but I doubt his reasons extend much beyond faith...
...people seem to have picked up on this conservatism. Most of the current debate is not one of broad reconfigurations but of petty technicalities. Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker has too much faith in science’s divinity to risk exposing students to a “Reason and Faith” requirement. Maier Professor of Political Economy Benjamin M. Friedman ’66 acts predictably—though not irrationally of course—when he demands more stature in the curriculum for the poor, scorned, and maligned discipline of economics. Professor of Biology...
...Steven Pinker writes that religion “is an American anachronism, I think, in an era in which the rest of the West is moving beyond it” (“Less Faith, More Reason,” Oct. 27, op-ed). As a consequence, he believes, we should reconsider the “Reason and Faith” requirement in the Report of the Committee on General Education. At best, this statement can be interpreted as hyperbole; looking at census data worldwide, in which religious affiliation is generally self-reported, 16 percent of those surveyed identified themselves...
...think, in an era in which the rest of the West is moving beyond it. These reservations should not be seen as a dismissal of the report, which has many excellent analyses and recommendations, but as a contribution to the discussion of where to go from here. Steven Pinker is Johnstone professor of psychology. He served on the Harvard College Curricular Review Committee on General Education that produced a previous general education report. This op-ed is adapted from remarks shared with the Task Force on General Education at a meeting with faculty...