"Rationality: what it is, why it seems scarce, why it matters" by Steven Pinker

 

Publisher: Viking

Copyright: 2021

ISBN: 9780525561996

This book is an extremely interesting read that takes the reader on a journey that ultimately explains what rationality is and like the title suggests why it matters and why it seems so scarce in today's world.

Dr. Pinker does this by examining how rational an animal humans are, then give us examples of both rational and irrational behaviour - of which there are a lot in today's world. He then goes on to a discussion of how logic and critical thinking work, Probability and randomness and then explores beliefs and evidence, risk and reward, hits and false alarms, game theory and finally correlation and causation.

He concludes by examining what is wrong with people in general and why they believe these things and then recaps by examining why rationality really matters.

This is an excellent book that should be required reading for pretty much every first year university student, as well as the majority of people in big business, government, and who knows what else.

Highly recommended.