Summary Of In Defense Of Dangerous Ideas By Steven Pinker

The article being referenced was written by Steven Pinker and is titled “In Defense of Dangerous Ideas” and was published on July 15, 2007 as a preface to his book “What is your Dangerous Idea?: Today’s Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable”. The article tells how in the past quarter century people have had new dangerous ideas that Pinker says our society is ill equipped to deal with. He also explains why these ideas are considered “dangerous”. He states that the acceptance of these ideas would come to a conclusion that some would say is deplorable. He also states that once a dangerous idea is out in the public there are certain people who will takes sides on the argument and act on upon their thoughts they might have held private until the publication of the idea. After reading the article I can see why some people might not want these questions brought up for fear of argument and the after effects of answering such questions but I also understand why we must answer them to better our society as a whole.
If we answered some of these questions, what would be the outcome?
From Pinker’s article; “One factor is an imaginable train of events in which acceptance of the idea could lead to an outcome recognized as harmful.” (Pinker) People are afraid that any outcome of answering these questions could lead to something catastrophic that may not have anything to do with the question it originally answered. People believe that the acceptance of one dangerous idea could lead to more radical ideas. We don’t know if that is what would actually happen but for some people that’s enough to not want to answer them. But how do these ideas become known to the common
people? Putting out dangerous ideas into the public is risky business. But for some people asking these questions is part of their job description. In the article Scientist, Scholars, and writers are mentioned as the special few who air these dangerous ideas with no personal backlash to themselves; therefore airing more thoughts like this than a normal person who would normally question airing such risky topics with others. (Pinker) But once these opinions are public there are certain people who had these same thoughts already and never acted upon them, but once they know that other people now know the same thing or be on the same side of the debate as them; it might encourage them to act upon their thoughts instead of just harboring them to themselves. (Pinker) After reading the article I have to agree with Pinker that we keep asking Dangerous Questions even though it may make certain people uncomfortable or other people just downright angry. Even though they are hard to ask and after answering them the aftermath is uncertain they are very important questions that could potentially benefit everyone if they were answered. The downside with this though is that there are certain people in the world who once they feel like they aren’t the only ones with a potentially radical idea it could lead someone to do something they might never have done had that thought stayed in their head. But even so, I think that asking and answering these questions will be beneficial to help stop intolerance and ignorance that lead people to do horrible things out of fear of the unknown.