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sapinker's profile
Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Verified account
@sapinker

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Steven PinkerVerified account

@sapinker

Cognitive scientist at Harvard.

Boston, MA
pinker.wjh.harvard.edu
Joined January 2010

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    Steven Pinker‏Verified account @sapinker 14 Dec 2017

    The Enlightenment can't be identified with the West: Many prestigious W intellectuals despise it (Romantics, Nietzsche, Heidegger, existentialists, Critical Theorists, postmodernists, nationalists, Greens, theoconservatives, faitheists, many others).https://goo.gl/JLVqPL 

    6:31 PM - 14 Dec 2017
    • 169 Retweets
    • 491 Likes
    • Education PLOW Virginia Lallana Tom Lawson Geovanni jklc8 Moshe Hoffman R Manning Vikas Menghwani Michelle Beissel
    79 replies 169 retweets 491 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Geoffrey Miller‏Verified account @primalpoly 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        The Enlightenment is the West's highest achievement, its modern foundation, and its most inspiring ideal to everyone who suffers under despotism, theocracy, and superstition.

        7 replies 16 retweets 92 likes
      3. 1 more reply
      1. New conversation
      2. Jonah Goldberg‏Verified account @JonahNRO 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        I agree that’s true now. But in its origins, can’t the West claim some pride of authorship? Wouldn’t it be good if that was something we taught people to be proud of instead of ashamed of?

        6 replies 3 retweets 32 likes
      3. Robert Zubrin‏ @robert_zubrin 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @JonahNRO @sapinker

        What bullshit. The Enlightenment came from the West. Nowhere else. It didn’t come from everyone in the West. Some opposed it. Some have sought to undo it. But it came from the West. Period.

        0 replies 2 retweets 5 likes
      4. End of conversation
      1. Steiner‏ @jfsteiner 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        You are conflating <things about> the west with the west.

        0 replies 1 retweet 8 likes
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      1. New conversation
      2. Mark Pawelek‏ @swcrisis 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        Don't be silly. Of course the Enlightenment is identified with the "West", and we know why it did not happen in China nor the Islamic world.

        1 reply 1 retweet 9 likes
      3. 1 more reply
      1. Freddy A. Bracke‏ @brackefr 15 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        Not "the Enlightenment" in general but modern science & technology underpin & justify superiority of Western civilization:pic.twitter.com/KcWqhm58yW

        0 replies 1 retweet 4 likes
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      1. Jim Ryan‏ @JamesEmmettRyan 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        Curious about your favorite Asian or African Enlightenment thought pioneers.

        0 replies 0 retweets 9 likes
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      1. Paul Topping‏ @PaulTopping 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        Just because some intellectuals despised it? Virtually nothing so complex gets unanimous approval.

        0 replies 0 retweets 9 likes
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      1. Joe Racanelli‏ @jracanelli 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        Are you suggesting that the Enlightenment did not have its origins in the West?

        1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
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      1. John C. Halloran‏ @johnchalloran 15 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        So how does post facto criticism or rejection of the Enlightenment, in part or in whole, by western thinkers make it not a western thing? Where else would one center it?

        0 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
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      1. New conversation
      2. WW1 Economics‏ @ww1econ 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @OliverKamm

        It was still a 'Western' phenomenon: France, Germany, Britain etc. I also am Lumières-sceptic but whatever...

        1 reply 0 retweets 7 likes
      3. WW1 Economics‏ @ww1econ 19 Dec 2017
        Replying to @ww1econ @sapinker @OliverKamm

        I just stumbled across Nietzsche calling the Enlightenment a flag with 3 names: Petrarch, Erasmus, Voltaire. A very European long haul.pic.twitter.com/t4zzEZPnOW

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      4. End of conversation
      1. Dr. Silva, J.P. 🦆‏ @ertwro 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        Ok, gotta read the book since your past books have so good and this tweet doesn't make sense to me.

        0 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
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      1. Weiße Rose‏ @7heAbolitionist 14 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker

        well, this is nonsense.

        0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
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