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.
It is flat-out strange that something-that anything-is happening at all. There was nothing then a Big Bang, then here we all are. This is extremely weird.
We betray our modern arrogance and forget the place of mystery in God's dealing with us.
Anguish of mind has driven thousands to suicide; anguish of body, none. This proves that the health of the mind is of far more consequence to our happiness than the health of the body, although both are deserving of much more attention than either of them receive.
Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.
Sometimes," he sighed, "I think the things I remember are more real than the things I see.
There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.
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