Dangerous Ideas: A Pinker-Dawkins Sandwich

John Brockman at Edge.org:

Screenhunter_05_jun_22_1546Screenhunter_09_jun_22_1550  The 2006 Edge Question — “What Is Your Dangerous Idea” — has now been published in book form in the US and the UK. The question was posed by Steven Pinker, who wrote:

The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?

For the book version, Steven Pinker has written the Preface and Richard Dawkins wrote the Afterword. I am pleased to present both pieces below just in time for the start of the summer reading season.

Click here to read Pinker’s intro and Dawkins’s afterword.