Prof. Steven Pinker - The Better Angels of Our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity

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The University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh

Күн бұрын

Professor Pinker explores ideas drawn from his book entitled The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence has Declined.
This lecture discusses the notion that contrary to popular belief that we live in exceptionally violent times, rates of violence have been in decline over the course of history.
Professor Steven Pinker is an award-winning experimental psychologist who works at Harvard University.
He has been named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Society and has been listed among Prospect magazine's top 100 public intellectuals in the world and Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world today.
Recorded on Wednesday 29 May 2013 at The University of Edinburgh's McEwan Hall.

Пікірлер: 185
@christopherwatson6305
@christopherwatson6305 6 жыл бұрын
Whenever I'm feeling pessimistic I put on a Steven Pinker video. Truly uplifting.
@christopherwatson6305
@christopherwatson6305 2 жыл бұрын
@Kamran Ullah Respectfully, I disagree. If you watched the lecture he was very circumspect in stating where and how things were getting better. But please rewatch and hear his thesis, not my retelling. He never said there's no longer any violence or that there's not a long way to go...only that by all significant metrics the human condition has vastly improved. Having said that- I concede that the post I made was 3 years ago and I'm not feeling quite as optimistic at this point. Thanks for you input and peace be with you, friend.
@christopherwatson6305
@christopherwatson6305 2 жыл бұрын
@Kamran Ullah your points are indeed valid, especially when referring to weapons of mass destruction. Keep in mind that the only two nuclear devices ever used were detonated in 1945 and (thank God) have not been used since. His data is encompassing a number of indicators, not just violence, particularly mass scale. He is referring also to a drop in all types of violent acts, large and small. They are all trending downward. Or were at the time of his lecture. He is also referring to the other ways in which the human condition has improved. Science, medicine, poverty, nutrition. And he is speaking in broad terms. Specific examples to the contrary will always be with us, and things could always suffer a reversal. When I posted my comment I was conveying that it's uplifting for me to listen to a lecture that wasn't all doom and gloom, but rather cited some positive statistics indicating positive trends. We are inundated with horror and negativity on a constant basis and some good news is refreshing. In no way am I burying my head in the sand. The tragedies if the world are real, ubiquitous and undeniable.
@gledatelj1979
@gledatelj1979 22 күн бұрын
@@christopherwatson6305 HIs government USA (that he supports fervently ) has launched dozens of wars of aggression including the new one against Russia.. The war has been "outlawed" since 1945 and yet has exploded pun intended in happening with more gruesome mass murder. The other country that he supports Israel, has been at war since 1945. It is arguable that USA and Israel have been at war with outsiders and some insiders since their very beginning. The trick that Pinker and other political activist use is the perversion of words so they don't really call words for what they are but their contradictory self that is war is not a war but national defence, foreign aid, humanitarian mission, spreading democracy and other euphemisms.
@MooMooManist
@MooMooManist 11 жыл бұрын
Once again, a brilliant lecture by Steven Pinker. He presents us with a fresh, level-headed and well-informed perspective on a subject that most of us feel gloomy about.
@squamish4244
@squamish4244 10 жыл бұрын
I am a history buff and am both amused and frustrated when people complain about how bad things are today. In fact humans are more humane, tolerant, and free than we have ever been. Part of the reason is, ironically, this trend itself. Many people have no memory of past violence...e.g. it has been seventy years since a single shot was fired between the nations that now constitute the First World. And of course the news media. Peace and stability don't make for good headlines, they are just par for the course in many countries.
@RBurns80
@RBurns80 3 жыл бұрын
We are not more free than we've ever been. And the reason the major powers haven't fired a shot since WWII is because they can't. Not only because of nukes, but because America is so militarily superior to everyone else that no one dares do anything. I don't know if "Thomas Hobbes was right" is an appeal to angels, but I thought it was interesting how quick Steven Pinker was to dismiss the question about suicide.
@robrophside3691
@robrophside3691 4 жыл бұрын
This should be taught in schools.
@janehrahan5116
@janehrahan5116 3 жыл бұрын
"line goes down" if you cherry pick outliers on the high end of the medieval age, ignore conditions in the new england region that might conflict with your narrative, modern medicine obscuring the actual rates of violence, police actions not being counted as homicides while counting all retributive acts in past ages as no different from murder. I don't know if this is pinkers worst book but its pretty darn close.
@NathansHVAC
@NathansHVAC 3 жыл бұрын
@@janehrahan5116 you must have watched the academic agent video on pinker's worst book.
@ginnynicarthy8135
@ginnynicarthy8135 9 жыл бұрын
Pinker's book is a remarkable swing through the history of the world as he presents a perspective that turns much of our conventional wisdom upside down. To give his ideas the attention they deserves would take months of analysis and discussion.
@guitarmusic524
@guitarmusic524 9 жыл бұрын
Ginny NiCarthy Yes, it's a graduate course in and of itself. I feel like I should be getting a credit or two, but I already have a doctorate in music. Not sure I need the credit, but I'll continue enjoying this book.
@4Many4
@4Many4 Ай бұрын
Greetings Dr. Steven Pinker, You have been a most influential bastion for me over the past 13 years. You have helped me put things in a perspective that encourages more thoughtful action and has granted me much more wisdom than otherwise. You are one of the best of us in this world! Best regards, Emmanuel
@ChaseR1993
@ChaseR1993 10 жыл бұрын
That was amazing. Thank you sir.
@jenslyn87
@jenslyn87 10 жыл бұрын
Steven Pinker wins the internet
@lorjan5675
@lorjan5675 4 ай бұрын
Very enlightening and inspiring lecture. I feel like whenever we are brought to believe that things are worse than ever, we need to zoom out, like a trading chart and see the general trend of civilization.
@boychildnew1
@boychildnew1 9 жыл бұрын
Excellent talk at my old University, and a very interesting book. I've learned a lot from it. One key point jars with me, though: his habit of using 'anarchy' to mean lawlessness and chaos. While most people think of the word in that way it has the very unfortunate consequence of making people think that anarchism, the serious political theory or approach, is also about lawlessness and chaos and violence. And it is NOT. Its a system: 'advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups', which would involve a great deal of organisation and order.
@varsha_raj
@varsha_raj 5 жыл бұрын
I have done my masters in economics However psychology was always my passion (studied from 9th grade till BA )it was one of my subjects .Can I apply for PhD in psychology .. please suggest would be really thankful
@Daves_Cave
@Daves_Cave Жыл бұрын
Boom! every point made is backed up with so much evidence that no one could possibly ever deny. He is a legend
@sbeast64
@sbeast64 8 жыл бұрын
Great talk and book mr Pinker, gotta love social progress.
@johnbirk843
@johnbirk843 10 жыл бұрын
I have been an admirer of professor Pinker ever since I read his book The Blank Slate, it was a logical fact based and well annotated work. Now if only we could require our politicians and news outlets to reference any violence committed and repoted currently to Pinker's and his sources work. antiguajohn
@CarlWong5
@CarlWong5 2 жыл бұрын
Pinker's talk begins at 3:43
@NazrulIslam-pt8ih
@NazrulIslam-pt8ih 6 жыл бұрын
Violence is more controlled by modern warfare stayegies. Violence has increased to point where humanist are desensitised.
@guitarmusic524
@guitarmusic524 9 жыл бұрын
I love Pinker's term on page 310: "Crappy governments". He mentions it as a term he overheard at a conference! Hahaha!!! (from you own lips, Dr. Pinker?) I am thoroughly enjoying the book, and I'm nearly halfway through.
@MrBlueconservative
@MrBlueconservative 10 жыл бұрын
Hope is real.
@Parasmunt
@Parasmunt 2 жыл бұрын
That aged well. Darn when reality wont play ball with your big theory.
@thejourney-prashantkumar8649
@thejourney-prashantkumar8649 Жыл бұрын
its right thing
@berber1930
@berber1930 2 ай бұрын
Excellent presentatiom, tthanks. One remark, thopugh. Many of the impressively convincing graphs seem to have been based ob interviews that hardly gave the occasion to the people interviewed to avoid the scare of astepping ooutside the lines of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. O just wonder how reliable the account is then considering the recent changes. Simmilarly, the woman asking the question about violence in schools was not ecpecting to hear the happy stpry of spanking etc being forbidden by law. Peer violence and the psychic violence, ("no dark sarcasm in the classroom! - teacger, leave those kids alone!" - PinkFloys) seem to fall ouside the statistics chefly based on LEGAL realities than what we actually live through. How can we avoid asking whether less window dressing is not wanted?
@pasquino0733
@pasquino0733 7 жыл бұрын
Could someone in academia answer this question: If I was to walk in to a humanities dept today what percentage of the professors would be in agreement with Pinker's analysis?
@user-lf8ys7ow3u
@user-lf8ys7ow3u 7 жыл бұрын
They probably would disagree but for retarded reasons, as the humanities is like a bullshit generator.
@mademoisellemarquee
@mademoisellemarquee 9 жыл бұрын
I think Steven Pinker is right with this but I need to look more into his comments on music having been listening to Oliver Sacks.
@nandoflorestan
@nandoflorestan 3 жыл бұрын
For half an hour this contains only graphs indicating the decline of violence. At 33:15 it becomes more interesting, searching for the causes.
@flugsven
@flugsven 9 жыл бұрын
What an encouraging reading this book is, and how entertaining! It´s like a christmas cake- filling and stuffed with yum yum^^
@mihaimoldo
@mihaimoldo 3 жыл бұрын
We take so much for granted... We should demand ourselves to always check our beliefs if they correspond with reality... And facts.
@commentaire1250
@commentaire1250 3 жыл бұрын
Which predictions does the “historically unusual” Long Peace reverse?
@stevenhines5550
@stevenhines5550 2 жыл бұрын
Sophistry
@ALavin-en1kr
@ALavin-en1kr Ай бұрын
The Precession of the Equinoxes determine intelligence and consequently the intelligence of humans in each era and consequently their behavior. We are on the ascent from the last Dark Age to an age when electricities and forces will be fully discovered and understood. The Great Year is a good film that explains this. It is likely that Prof. Pinker has not seen it.
@ElectricQualia
@ElectricQualia 9 жыл бұрын
While I agree with the overarching point here, there seems to be a major weakness in Pinkers argument. He didn't control for modern medicine, better nutrition and better sanitation. That by itself could bring the violent death statistics a lot closer. A second weakness is his focus on western and industrialized countries, I feel that if he included the rest of the world the picture would be much more accurate.
@guitarmusic524
@guitarmusic524 9 жыл бұрын
ElectricQualia On your second point first, Pinker deals EXTENSIVELY with Non-Western countries in the book, even mentioning the Liberian cannibal warlord, General Butt Naked. He did mention that much of our war data is Euro-Centric due to record-keeping practices.
@ElectricQualia
@ElectricQualia 9 жыл бұрын
Brent McPike Which proves my point, data wise, his theory is exclusive to industrialized countries. So he can't really say that violence has declined in general... This gets us to anthropic reasoning style self sampling assumptions. Id est, if a given country keeps good record keeping practice, it probably has low violence anyways, which allows it to have the stable government bureaucracy that keeps good records in the first place. This of course doesn't mean a lack of government is necessarily correlated with higher violence, which is one of the major themes in the book. I actually agree that a Leviathan decreases violence cetris paribus. However, small hunter gatherer societies aren't necessarily more violent. I am agnostic on this last point. There is also problems with his postulate that democracies don't fight each other, this is simply a fallacy of correlation, western countries don't fight each other due to cultural and economic ties which have evolved out of historical dynamics, it has little to do with system of government per se.
@user-lf8ys7ow3u
@user-lf8ys7ow3u 7 жыл бұрын
In the book he does cover non-industrialized societies and medicine advances. Why are you commenting on this without reading the book? I seriously dont understand people who do this.
@ElectricQualia
@ElectricQualia 7 жыл бұрын
B The central focus of the book is western societies rather than the world as a whole. As for medicine, I know he mentioned it in passing. But it isn't part of the main reasons he cited for the decline of violence. i read the book, get off your high horse
@steve5123456789
@steve5123456789 10 жыл бұрын
Not really just failed to mention the importance of the nuclear weapons and everyone being to scared to rage wars after 1945. The numbers will soon balance out with the devastation of a nuke to make up for the sagging numbers, or due to the fact that everyone is still bankrupt after WW2 still.
@d_e_a_n
@d_e_a_n 10 жыл бұрын
He seems to only be concerned with the decline of actual violence and not possible violence or the threat of violence.
@pardismack
@pardismack 9 жыл бұрын
he started the lecture by stating that the decline is not guaranteed. He only studied the decline of violence. His study is of crucial importance as it shows us what are the factors that helped that decline so we can focus more on them and hopefully eliminate violence. He studied facts, not predictions. but with his study, we can control more the future so bad predictions don't take place.
@ObservableFiction
@ObservableFiction 9 жыл бұрын
He actually covered this in the book, saying that a nuclear strike is now less plausible than ever and it will continue to drop in likelihood as the years go by
@MarkTAllenby
@MarkTAllenby 9 жыл бұрын
deanmat If you read the book he looks not just at wars but at threats of war and warlike actions in his analysis. In fact this is recognisable in my life time. 'My dad's bigger than your dad' was a common feature in the 1940's to 1970's as it was socially acceptable for men to threaten violence and it was socially acceptable to do so. That isn't the case anymore of the vast majority. What was seen as 'manly' is now seen as boorish and uncouth.
@d_e_a_n
@d_e_a_n 9 жыл бұрын
Mark Allenby yes. On the process of reading his book. My comment was one directed towards people who always mention the "possible" and ever imminent threat of nuclear war. I was just saying he is more concerned with what is (reality) than with what might one day be.
@theecoheroes413
@theecoheroes413 6 жыл бұрын
Love Planet Earth and be an Eco Hero! 🌍❤️
@markmunyui
@markmunyui 7 жыл бұрын
21:00
@stevekokette
@stevekokette 7 жыл бұрын
Steven Pinker has twice tweeted his 175,000 followers about a documentary I've made that will reduce violence and crime. It - One Punch Homicide - is getting great reviews. You can watch it free at www.onepunchhomicide.com.
@antediluvianatheist5262
@antediluvianatheist5262 5 жыл бұрын
the movie is... not good. And your website is a medium-sized atrocity. Seriously, it looks like it came from the 80's. And right justified text and blue/white or black/purple makes it look like timecube.
@princessliew4319
@princessliew4319 2 жыл бұрын
This due to fighting for human right humanity right,.
@friedrichdergroe9664
@friedrichdergroe9664 7 жыл бұрын
I question the approach of rates of violence vs. actual numbers. Each death is a human being, and if we don't consider the actual death count vis a vis the counts per 100,000, are we not missing something critical here? That is to say, the non-participatory portion of the population is lumped in with the participatory part. For instance, the raw death counts of the World Wars I and II are in the 10s of millions. If you then, say, "norm" that against the global population at the time, you are counting many people from many nations that did not participate or were involved in the violence. Does it make sense to reckon this way? I am not sure how to answer this question, but it does merit discussion. The reason I raise it is because I would like to see the actual raw numbers reduced to zero. Am I being unrealistic in this assessment? Is the value of a single human life worth less because there is now 7 billion humans on this planet vs. a time where there were only, say, 2 billion? If that is true, then doing percentages will serve as a dis-justice to the individual victims. Perhaps a more sophisticated model is indicated here.
@nichoudha
@nichoudha 5 жыл бұрын
It's gonna always have to be pros and cons with the ideal being zero, but yeah, fair points.
@skindu
@skindu 3 жыл бұрын
I was thinking somewhat the same thing. If you look at individual states in the 20th century some of their populations were devastated and the percentages can be 20-40, but the time window is relatively narrow, which means that a lot of people are born during the century that don't experience violent deaths. Also, the violent death rates for prehistoric humans is most likely lower due to cremation as a burial method. The graves that are found now is not enough of a sample to make far reaching deductions. But, even though the argumentation is a bit flawed he has a point.
@CrlMchd
@CrlMchd 9 жыл бұрын
"Believe it or not and I know most people do not. Violence has been in decline for long streches of time and today we are living in the most peaceful era of our existence." (is it right?)
@sandhulu
@sandhulu 4 жыл бұрын
Any body else noticed a cute dog sleeping in the aisle ? 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
@judyimamudeen16
@judyimamudeen16 5 жыл бұрын
I would love if Pinker would update the stats to reflect the Trump effect on hate crimes in America. I'm curious to know the impact of these kinds of leaders on increased aggression.
@jasonsimms8251
@jasonsimms8251 2 жыл бұрын
Man, you are so brainwashed judy.
@khoango8526
@khoango8526 4 жыл бұрын
Can someone from this university (or has relevant knowledge) please tell me whether the long clapping is a tradition of the school or they clapped really long because this was an excellent lecture? I really think the lecture was excellent, but I'm curious still :D
@KeikoOnTheGo
@KeikoOnTheGo 3 жыл бұрын
Lol
@ryfree
@ryfree 4 жыл бұрын
'Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is Christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.' - Ralph Waldo Emerson
@forgetunome
@forgetunome 9 жыл бұрын
His talk is very interesting. But, his constant lip smacking is irritating.
@U5K0
@U5K0 11 жыл бұрын
nullius in verba it never rang truer
@cazador1022
@cazador1022 4 жыл бұрын
I would argue that the Native Americans would object to some of this data
@alexandriamartin6836
@alexandriamartin6836 2 жыл бұрын
Boosie Badazz
@teclote
@teclote 2 жыл бұрын
"Arab Spring and Color Revolution" - precipitated by the CIA.
@dannwe123
@dannwe123 9 жыл бұрын
Step aside, I shall commit a medium-sized atrocity!
@DenianArcoleo
@DenianArcoleo 9 жыл бұрын
Lol
@nickbabcock4872
@nickbabcock4872 10 жыл бұрын
Doubtless significant parts of Pinker's analysis are correct. But there are serious flaws with other parts. Anyone interested in a serious critique should check out this article. It is highly readable and worth your time. publicintellectualsproject.mcmaster.ca/democracy/reality-denial-steven-pinkers-apologetics-for-western-imperial-violence/
@Nygaard2
@Nygaard2 10 жыл бұрын
Yeah... The author of that article completely misunderstands the purpose of Pinker's book, and he clearly has his own political axe to grind. What a waste.
@d_e_a_n
@d_e_a_n 10 жыл бұрын
I feel like writing a serious critique of this serious critique.
@Nygaard2
@Nygaard2 10 жыл бұрын
deanmat LOL Well put. I'd really like to see a well-argued critique of his book - I've read a few, but they are all in the same line: "How dare he look at percentages and not absolute numbers!" Which I think is perfectly argued in the early parts of the book. How else would you make historical comparisons? Personally I could see some much more interesting counters vis-a-vis Pinker calling WWI+WWII an anomoly. I think that could be argued soundly. (I personally agree with him vis-a-vis WWII, WWI not so much). Any way - a well argued critique would be welcome, if anybody knows of any...
@d_e_a_n
@d_e_a_n 10 жыл бұрын
Magnus Nygaard I think many have a feeling of distress over the possibility of nuclear destruction and because of this fear feeling, Pinker feels wrong to them. But this is a feeling and not a comparison. For the absolute vs percentage thing, I feel like mentioning to people that sneezing has become a massive problem because there is so much more sneezing now than there was 1000 years ago. Is sneezing a growing problem simply because the population has exploded which results in more sneezes? The world has become far more sneezy. There are also now 21-27 million slaves on the planet which is more than at any point in history. So is slavery a growing problem or a diminishing one? In absolute numbers it seems to be a growing problem. But it seems absurd to me to say slavery is a growing problem when it was once once legal and common everywhere and now illegal everywhere.
@Nygaard2
@Nygaard2 10 жыл бұрын
deanmat Ah yes, the nuclear threat. I forgot about that one. I imagine a lot of people who grew up under the threat of the Cold War have a hard time simply dismissing the paranoia we were indoctrinated with for so many years. I like your sneeze analogy, btw. :) Be well, Magnus
@flowinglikethewater
@flowinglikethewater Жыл бұрын
He sounds like he’s forcing himself to say simpler words when clearly he’s wanting to speak his natural super advanced words lol.
@bradmacdonald7626
@bradmacdonald7626 3 жыл бұрын
#1 Reason for decline in violence : Decriminalization of cannabis
@commentaire1250
@commentaire1250 3 жыл бұрын
Which predictions does the “historically unusual” Long Peace reverse?
@tedoymisojos
@tedoymisojos 6 жыл бұрын
Natural theologian? What? Since when?
@nichoudha
@nichoudha 5 жыл бұрын
I think that guy was desperate to credit religion in some ways because Pinker is a pro-enlightenment philosopher lol
@jokerj311
@jokerj311 7 жыл бұрын
I haven't watched the video yet...so this is just my 2 cents. Our benchmark for most peaceful time is against world wars. So I'm sure it is peaceful in comparison to our history of unbelievable levels of violence.Peace itself is an idea I don't think pu can quantify with numbers. Chicago is the most violent it's ever been and the violence continues to rise. I have no evidence but gang and cartel violence seems higher, like in Mexico. So most peaceful it's ever been isn't that peaceful in my mind now. Again, haven't watched the video but I want to hear the perspective.
@suzbone
@suzbone 10 жыл бұрын
I'm troubled by Pinker's failure to mention the genocide of the indigenous peoples of North and South America. He specifically mentions other genocides but none of the huge and highly organized ones perpetrated on this side of the planet. Maybe it's mentioned in the finer print of some of those graphs? Or did I miss something he said?
@squamish4244
@squamish4244 10 жыл бұрын
Most historians don't regard the subjugation of the native people of the Americas as outright genocide. Most of them died before or shortly after direct European contact due to introduced diseases, up to 90% in many areas, but that was not intentional murder. Even the notoriously brutal Spanish imperialists wanted to keep the indigenous population alive to work as slaves in their mines, etc. and didn't like the fact that they were all dying off. This is why black Africans were imported into the Americas in the first place.
@Nygaard2
@Nygaard2 10 жыл бұрын
They are mentioned in the book as genocides. But I agree with Valinor, that while there were elements of genocide (especially in the organized campaigns against the North American natives) it's often not an intentional slaughter of people, but more a destruction of cultures for some ulterior gain.
@Summerspeaker
@Summerspeaker 9 жыл бұрын
valinor100 Historians rarely agree on much of anything. In my field, American studies, it's utterly standard to describe European colonialism as genocidal. Genocide doesn't simply mean Nazi-style extermination, though various European settler certainty practiced that variety.
@thorshammer138
@thorshammer138 4 жыл бұрын
You must remember that this talk is a distillation of a 700 page book; he's not going to get to everything. He goes over it in his book.
@boredomaster
@boredomaster 2 жыл бұрын
This is pretty funny in a post-CHAZ world.
@teclote
@teclote 2 жыл бұрын
He obviously believes in government, which is failing us massively.
@claudiabentley1574
@claudiabentley1574 11 ай бұрын
wow! I do not know what is most astonishing the sided perspective of this professor or the comments that praise him. Seriously nobody sees how bad this is? nobody sees the circular argumentation? Nothing?
@andreasandreotti4492
@andreasandreotti4492 2 жыл бұрын
Qualified bullskit! Missleading to the extent of vomiting!
@jarelnomeh2345
@jarelnomeh2345 4 жыл бұрын
Interesting presentation. Left-wing bias is obvious and, thus, causation and correlation get to swap places a few times.
@intermarinita
@intermarinita 9 жыл бұрын
Lupus est homo homini, non homo, quom qualis sit non novit
@jufebato
@jufebato 2 жыл бұрын
26:34 “No nuclear weapon has been used since Nagasaki.” What a bizarre statement. Why doesn’t he count then the fact that never an atom bomb was thrown in the middle ages, or as a matter of fact, not once in the history of mankind until 1945, as evidence of violence increasing over time? Why does he count as positive that the bomb has not been used when the analysis is made towards the present but not when applied towards the past? The ways in which men have been killing each other have been perfected for a really long time, to the point that now they produce much more potential for massive destruction than ever before, so how doesn’t this fact undermine his entire argument?
@ritwikchakraborty2805
@ritwikchakraborty2805 3 жыл бұрын
oh the good days before Trump, Yeltsin, Macron, Modi election.
@lucashood4669
@lucashood4669 9 жыл бұрын
41:47 Islam.
@TheMasturCheef
@TheMasturCheef 7 жыл бұрын
Islam was mentioned in the talk. As a pacifying factor.
@limbokillah1397
@limbokillah1397 6 жыл бұрын
Religion overall. Believing in something.
@jP-ey8iw
@jP-ey8iw 5 жыл бұрын
biased
@johnmcsomething9576
@johnmcsomething9576 4 жыл бұрын
This guy needs a smack.
@ElectricQualia
@ElectricQualia 9 жыл бұрын
I wonder what anarchists would say to this
@jeremyreagan9085
@jeremyreagan9085 8 жыл бұрын
ElectricQualia We Anarchists would say his data does not match with historical data he is ignoring the Anthropologists whom, know the data better then he does in truth 95% of our history was far less violent then the current age.
@user-lf8ys7ow3u
@user-lf8ys7ow3u 7 жыл бұрын
You don't have evidence of this.
@jeremyreagan9085
@jeremyreagan9085 7 жыл бұрын
Yes I do read Dan Brown's work.
@user-lf8ys7ow3u
@user-lf8ys7ow3u 7 жыл бұрын
Da fuq does that have to do with anything? Better Angels has compiled all available violence statistics from anthropology, covering many types of societies in different parts of the world. We also don't have historical records covering anywhere near "95% of our history".
@jeremyreagan9085
@jeremyreagan9085 7 жыл бұрын
If you understood Anthropology draws from various disciplines such as present hunter gather societies whose cultures are highly similar to earlier societies. It is not a game of compiling data in favor of one’s wishes as Pinker does it is what is factual within the archeological data, which does not show a marked level of violence on the scale we see presently in the world. State Industrialized violence is out pacing any previous age in scale and brutality. Consider the Holocaust of Native peoples of North America it was the first mass murder of an entire population on an industrialized scale or of course the industrialized murders by IBM and Nazi Germny.
@patrickhanson712
@patrickhanson712 3 жыл бұрын
So in the Trump era...
@krisla8211
@krisla8211 2 жыл бұрын
Total bollocks.
@jarrodyuki7081
@jarrodyuki7081 2 жыл бұрын
dont talk about this this is divine authority and blasphemy we will never love humans beyond our own nation or race. period humanity doesnt deserve a shared future. animals deserve even less rights theyre not conscious entities. dont talk about animal rights.
@smurflbws
@smurflbws 10 жыл бұрын
The guy is so flawed. Sorry the dude does not do history. He makes some shit up, ignores other stuff. Bull dozes with statistics. What he omits is more telling than what he is trying to say. Who are his audience? He gets to chatter about pseudo science for over an hour unchallenged. Ironic his figures end in 2008 for a talk in 2013. He what about those revolutions etc. Or using Hobbes without any real reference to the English Revolution and Kant without giving a nod to the French Revolution. Despite all this millions have been killed in war over the last 50 years by 'leading' democracies... History has a horrible habit of pointing out the bits that were omitted.
@squamish4244
@squamish4244 10 жыл бұрын
As a proportion of world population, fewer people have died violently in the past three centuries than at any point in history previously. This is despite all the wars and genocides, including every event you are referring to.
@harrison1735
@harrison1735 10 жыл бұрын
"Ironic his figures end in 2008 for a talk in 2013." There's nothing ironic about that at all. Statistics take time to adequately compile, measure, and publish. You can't include stats that don't exist yet.
@squamish4244
@squamish4244 10 жыл бұрын
Harrison Greeley Some people have a very difficult time with the knowledge that things aren't actually that bad, which says more about how humans are wired (look up "negativity bias") and the influence of mass media than the political system they are living in.
@d_e_a_n
@d_e_a_n 10 жыл бұрын
What did he make up? Which statistics are wrong? Yes, millions still die but he doesn't claim to the contrary. He simply says less are dying or suffering violence as a proportion of the population.
@Summerspeaker
@Summerspeaker 9 жыл бұрын
valinor100 "As a proportion of world population, fewer people have died violently in the past three centuries than at any point in history previously." The fact that you actually believe this is hilarious. Pinker's own key sources - Rudolph Rummel and Matthew White, themselves far from convincing - argue for the 20th century as the bloodiest ever in percent terms.
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