The everyday meaning of “common knowledge” is knowledge held in common, often as an open secret. For example, it is common knowledge that publishers like books that seek, via quirky examples, to ...

On Sept. 29, Harvard Psychology professor Steven A. Pinker sat down at the First Parish Church to discuss his most recent book, “When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…: Common Knowledge and the ...

In a new book, the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker argues that an awareness that everyone knows what you know is a powerful driver of human social life. By Dennis Duncan Dennis Duncan teaches ...

Before boarding a flight to South Africa in 2013, Justine Sacco sent a sardonic joke to her 170 Twitter followers: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding—I’m white!” By the time her ...

Let us begin with a few simple propositions: (1) I know that the Harvard cognitive scientist and noted anti-wokeness crusader Steven Pinker has written a wan and blinkered book about the nature of ...

It’s not what everyone knows that counts but what everyone admits they know, according to this labyrinthine pop-sci treatise. Harvard cognitive psychologist Pinker (The Better Angels of Our Nature) ...

I don’t know about you, but ever since I can remember – from my early teens – I have been bemused about the endless rituals we humans perform; and even more so about what can and can’t be said about ...

From using words to overthrowing regimes, shared awareness is necessary for people to coordinate. The cognitive scientist explains to Nature how it works. When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...: ...