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David Berlinski’s new book takes a very different view of human nature from Steven Pinker’s

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Human Nature

Pinker thinks that things are getting better (Better Angels) all the time but Berlinski says, nah!, no real change:

From the publisher at Amazon:

Conventional wisdom holds that the murder rate has plummeted since the Middle Ages; humankind is growing more peaceful and enlightened; man is shortly to be much improved—better genes, better neural circuits, better biochemistry; and we are approaching a technological singularity that well may usher in utopia. Human Nature eviscerates these and other doctrines of a contemporary nihilism masquerading as science. In this wide-ranging work polymath David Berlinski draws upon history, mathematics, logic, and literature to retrain our gaze on an old truth many are eager to forget: there is and will be about the human condition beauty, nobility, and moments of sublime insight, yes, but also ignorance and depravity. Men are not about to become like gods.

If you live long enough, you will see more of who is right.


See also: Is Violence Really Declining, As Cognitive Psychologist Steven Pinker Claims?

Science Journalist Tells Steven Pinker, Yes, We ARE Living In A Post-Truth Society

and

John Gray doesn’t think much of evolutionary psychologist Steve Pinker’s “better angels”

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Comments
There is less murder because civilized ("living in cities") people live under more effective policing. The phrase "got away Scot Free" refers to the period in Anglo-Scotch relations where it was accepted by EVERYONE that a Highland Scot made his own laws. And thus a Highlander who committed an unprovoked murder in English-controlled territory needed only to escape back to the Highlands to avoid ANY penalty for that murder. There are of course modern examples, as when the Bantus in Rwanada woke up one morning and decided it was a good day to kill Watutsis, and so they did. The death toll ran into the millions. But since the Bantus ran the government, NO ONE was ever punished for offing a couple Watutsis here and there.vmahuna
November 13, 2019
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Our nature is unchanging. We have the same motivations that have existed for thousands of years. There's a reason socialism always fails, which is the inability to calculate human nature. We are unique in nature. We have tremendous ability to invent and have used this ability to create and destroy. Rome had a river that was polluted, which was primarily from the human bodies that ended up in the water. War isn't a pleasant business and the aftermath left the people getting sick from drinking the water. The first aqueduct was their solution. By the time they finished, Rome had brought clean water to its capital and upwards of 1,000,000 people used that water on a daily basis. There was nothing in nature quite like the aqueduct that was created.BobRyan
November 12, 2019
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