As someone relatively new to following "public intellectuals" (think Tyler Cowen, Jonathan Haidt, Pinker, etc.) I've been surprised at who reductive their arguments seem to be.
There is a lot of talk among this class of people regarding the current state of debate but as in many cases I've seen examples of two people who are absolutely grounded in their beliefs and use straw man arguments, diversion and reductive reasoning to defend their points. If you ever listened to the Ezra Klein v. Sam Harris podcast you know what I mean.
This isn't the first occasion that I've seen someone rebute the philosophy of Pinker's work only for him to double down on the same argument. I guess I shouldn't be surprised because persuasion is difficult in general, but I expected a deeper dive into the complexities of these arguments.
Once a public intellectual reaches a certain level of public visibility/celebrity, they spend most of their time having softballs lobbed at them by worshipful audiences at venues like TED and Davos. It's not hard to imagine how that sort of treatment would atrophy their muscles for engaging with criticism.
> I expected a deeper dive into the complexities of these arguments.
Public intellectuals are attempting to appeal to the public at large, the majority of which don't change their minds based on new information. They change their minds based on how that information makes them feel. Trying to convince most people to change their minds with a complex argument is a lot like trying to convince most people to change their minds by talking in Italian instead of English.
There is a lot of talk among this class of people regarding the current state of debate but as in many cases I've seen examples of two people who are absolutely grounded in their beliefs and use straw man arguments, diversion and reductive reasoning to defend their points. If you ever listened to the Ezra Klein v. Sam Harris podcast you know what I mean.
This isn't the first occasion that I've seen someone rebute the philosophy of Pinker's work only for him to double down on the same argument. I guess I shouldn't be surprised because persuasion is difficult in general, but I expected a deeper dive into the complexities of these arguments.