That convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had assist to avoid federal or state jail is unsurprising: cash and power often purchase whatever they shouldn’t. But the present revelation that Epstein discovered the aid of celebrity psychologist Steven Pinker by means of a 2007 appropriate document astonished both Pinker’s fans and experts.
At the very minimum in the beginning. Then arrived the analysis: to supporters of Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, their ties to Epstein can be an aberration within an otherwise commendable life as a general general public intellectual — one considering explanation and truth, also if that’s unpopular. Increasingly, Pinker’s work focuses on the idea that life is good — better than it is ever been — and that people don’t enjoy it sufficient.
As Pinker penned in 2018’s Enlightenment Now: The full Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, “People appear to bitch, moan, whine, carp and kvetch up to ever, ” despite reams of information on just how people’ standard of living continues to enhance. (more…)