MixedSlateThe contrast he draws between our rational capacities and our current situation will resonate ... Rather than argue for his own liberal, technocratic goals, however, Pinker lets their presumed superiority color his use of \'rational\' and \'irrational\' throughout. This creates a recurring dissonance ... the bulk of the book is less an open culture war campaign than a May Day parade of rationality’s arsenal ... Adjusting your sample of Rationality as you go...you can find an informative and briskly written book about types of reasoning and their applications. The trouble begins when you read all the words. Pinker can neither embrace polemic outright (because this is about rationality, not values) nor let it go (his values are, of course, the rational ones). So instead of confronting his targets head on, the middle chapters engage in a kind of indirect culture warfare, dragging foes in as apparently incidental examples of irrationality or motivated reasoning. Where the shoe fits, fair enough ... But Pinker lets his own solidarities and enmities shape his concern for facts and argumentation. This results in large, unsupported claims ... This is a treatise about rationality that both decries and exploits cynicism and credulity, sometimes on the same page ... Doctor, heal thyself!
