Steven Pinker picks 5 books about science that you don't have to be a genius to enjoy

okay top five science or psychology books well there's a book that I read when I was a child that I still recommend it was published in early 1950s called 1 2 3 infinity by George gamma a famous physicist at the time and it explains concepts like relativity like dimensionality of space probability in a very accessible and entertaining way and it's good for older children all the way up to two adults Richard Dawkins books on evolution is particularly The Selfish Gene and the blind watchmaker clear and entertaining but at the same time scientifically deep inaccurate expositions a recent book on physics that I enjoyed is the big picture by Sean Carroll a lot of popular books on physics where I read it and I kind of nod and I think to myself I think I understand this and I always remember a quote from Richard Feinman if you ever hear yourself saying I think I understand it that means you don't but I read Sean Carroll's book I read it and I that I understand this the book that I really enjoyed partly because it resonated with enlightenment now but from a different angle as David Deutsch s book the beginning of infinity Deutsch is a theoretical physicist and this was a book also on progress also on the Enlightenment but unlike what I did which was to plot graphs on their lifespans going up death from disease going down and so on he'd reasons really from first principles how can we understand the universe how is explanation possible what drives science how does the human mind stretch itself to do science and it was it's a profound weighty book but but not filled with jargon or too much technical detail well for a book on how the mind works I'd have to recommend my book called how the mind works which covers everything about the mind other than language which I covered in the language but this is a book on how he's seen how we think how we remember how we have emotions about the physical world like food and landscapes and beauty and how we have emotions about social world like love-hate trust gratitude guilts sympathy anger

Channel: The A.V. Club

Views: 30,191

Keywords: Top 5, Steven Pinker

Id: S5Q_Cr-4iXc

Length: 2min 14sec (134 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 17 2018