You don't like to be lied to, by your friends or in your business dealings. So why would you want to be lied to when it comes to the origin of life or the fate of the planet?
Interpretation
Honesty is crucial in all aspects of life, including understanding the fundamental truths about existence.
In this quote, Steven Pinker emphasizes the importance of truth and honesty, not only in personal relationships and business but also in the realm of scientific inquiry and understanding our existence. He challenges the notion of accepting falsehoods about vital topics such as the origin of life and the future of our planet, urging us to seek the truth in all areas of life.
In practice
This quote can be used in an academic discussion on the importance of scientific integrity.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
Longing is a compass that guides us through life. We may never get what we really want, that's true, but every step along the way will be determined by it.
True self is the part of us that does not change when circumstances do.
It is never the thing but the version of the thing.
Seeking out causes is a pastime of the mind. There is no duality of cause and effect. Everything is its own cause.
Men are more compassionate/(nobler)/magnanimous/generous than God; for men forgive their dead, but God does not.
If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will...then we may take it it is worth paying.
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