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.
Interpretation
Reason is an essential tool for argument and understanding; rejecting it undermines one's own position.
In this quote, Steven Pinker emphasizes the fundamental role of reason in human discourse and knowledge. He argues that attempting to dismiss reason from an argument is inherently contradictory, as the very act of making that dismissal relies on reasoning itself. Therefore, reason should not be viewed as a matter of belief, but as an essential foundation upon which all rational discourse and understanding are built.
In practice
In a debate on the importance of rational thought, this quote highlights why reason is vital.
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.
Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.
A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.
If a man had begun to hate an object of his love, so that love is thoroughly destroyed, he will, causes being equal, regard it with more hatred than if he had never loved it, and his hatred will be in proportion to the strength of his former love.
We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all.
You should stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body-mind of itself will drop off and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practice just this.
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