Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: Rationality and Tradition

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Rationality and Tradition

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Rationality and Tradition

Tim Stanley on tradition and Steven Pinker on rationality. Anne McElvoy hosts.

What should we value? Steven Pinker makes the case for rationality as a necessary quality, and Tim Stanley explores tradition and its place in shaping our contemporary world.

Do we value the right ideas?  Two concepts come in for close scrutiny in this edition of Free Thinking: Rationality and Tradition. So, what are they, how has our understanding of them changed over time and why do we seem to place such little emphasis on each in our contemporary world? Presenter Anne McElvoy will listening to the arguments as Steven Pinker makes the case for rationality and Tim Stanley for tradition.   
  
Steven Pinker is Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and author or Rationality: What it is, why it seems scarce, why it matters  
Tim Stanley is a writer, broadcaster and journalist, his latest book is Whatever Happened to Tradition? History, Belonging and the Future of the West 

Steven Pinker presents Think With Pinker, a 12 part series on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds available from from Thursday 18 November

Producer: Ruth Watts

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