In a previous post, we considered three of seven "irrational" habits of highly rational people. Here we consider the remaining four, as well as some suggestions for distinguishing the genuinely ...

Steven Pinker’s new bestseller, “Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters,” is filled with riddles and quizzes and problems to ponder. Reading it, I bombed on every single one. The ...

Irrational numbers are numbers that cannot be expressed as the ratio of two whole numbers. This is opposed to rational numbers, like 2, 7, one-fifth and -13/9, which can be, and are, expressed as the ...

When my students grow too dependent on their calculators, I ask them to find a number that, when multiplied by itself, gives them 2. Students quickly see that since 1² = 1 and 2² = 4, the answer has ...

This post is a review of Rationality: What It Is. Why It Seems Scarce. Why It Matters. By Steven Pinker. Viking. 432 pp. $32. Forty-two percent of Americans believe in possession by the devil.