It's hard to take that article seriously when it's surrounded by anti-vaccine stuff[1] and various conspiracy theories[2][3][4].
I tried reading the actual content, but the unnecessary verbiage and hostility forced me to skim it. The counterarguments I did read are mostly FUD. For example: How can we know that people in prehistoric tribes were likely to die from violence? Well, there's an entire field of forensic anthropology that's up to the task. Pinker's just citing the experts.
The claim that Pinker misconstrued numbers particularly annoyed me. If we want to compare violence across societies, we need to compare homicide rates, not the absolute numbers. Pinker rightly acknowledges this, but the authors of this article claim only absolute numbers matter.
And throughout the piece, the authors try to push their own agenda. Something about modern society corrupting humankind. It quickly grows tiresome to read.
I'm sure there's a decent critique of Pinker's book somewhere, but your link isn't it.
1. http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-is-australias-vaccine-mafia...
2. http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-walls-are-crumbling-down-ar...
3. http://www.globalresearch.ca/just-as-isil-gets-exposed-as-a-...
4. http://www.globalresearch.ca/paris-killings-terrorism-or-fal...
I tried reading the actual content, but the unnecessary verbiage and hostility forced me to skim it. The counterarguments I did read are mostly FUD. For example: How can we know that people in prehistoric tribes were likely to die from violence? Well, there's an entire field of forensic anthropology that's up to the task. Pinker's just citing the experts.
The claim that Pinker misconstrued numbers particularly annoyed me. If we want to compare violence across societies, we need to compare homicide rates, not the absolute numbers. Pinker rightly acknowledges this, but the authors of this article claim only absolute numbers matter.
And throughout the piece, the authors try to push their own agenda. Something about modern society corrupting humankind. It quickly grows tiresome to read.
I'm sure there's a decent critique of Pinker's book somewhere, but your link isn't it.
1. http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-is-australias-vaccine-mafia...
2. http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-walls-are-crumbling-down-ar...
3. http://www.globalresearch.ca/just-as-isil-gets-exposed-as-a-...
4. http://www.globalresearch.ca/paris-killings-terrorism-or-fal...