Steven Pinker: Academic freedom prevents us from getting trapped in circles of delusion

- If channels of expression aren't kept open, there runs a risk of pluralistic ignorance. - We all have the right to express ideas even if they're incorrect. How would we know whether an idea is right or wrong without expressing and evaluating it? Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his nine books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (https://amzn.to/2pGndxG). The opinions expressed in this video do not necessarily reflect the views of Stand Together, which encourages the expression of diverse viewpoints within a culture of civil discourse and mutual respect. Give yourself the gift of knowledge — subscribe to Big Think Edge: http://bit.ly/bigthinkedge If you're interested in licensing this or any other Big Think clip for commercial or private use, contact our licensing partner Executive Interviews: https://ift.tt/2IQF1gR Read more at BigThink.com: https://ift.tt/30DWFKk Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: https://ift.tt/1qJMX5g Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink