Hi TOK List,
In a blog I did last week on
The Reason for Reason, I reviewed Shapiro and Peterson’s conversation where they were scratching their heads about the evolution of reason. In that blog, I referenced that I had listened to Steve Pinker’s excellent podcast with Peterson on his views on
the Enlightenment and the concept of progress. Pinker loosely mentions the idea that there are some evolutionary perspectives on human reason, but does not elucidate (it is not a primary focus of the exchange---the focus is more on Pinker’s critique that it
was general humanistic values rather than the Judeo-Christian ethic that was a primary driver of the Enlightenment).
Near the end of the podcast (here it is), Pinker reports that he is working on a new book,
Don’t Go There, which explores the nuances of social verbal exchange and highlights how often we “beat around the bush” and make allusions to things, but don’t make them explicit. Both Peterson and Pinker discuss why that might be and what the tendency
to exist in the liminal space between the explicit and implicit might be about.
Those on this list likely can guess that my answer would have been as follows: The problem of social justification. What we say, how we say it, who we say it to, even whether we say it to ourselves is all found in the “social psychodynamics”
of the filtering between implicit and explicit tendencies, both to ourselves and to important others.
Plausible deniability represents just one of many kinds of explicit/implicit devices that allow us humans the capacity to “thread linguistic needles” to occupy the space between some aspect of
our investments, desires, and influences, in contrast to the “explicit” record of stated realities. To see this in real time, here is Pinker’s analysis of Trump’s phone call:
This is a great example and under normal circumstances, I think a President who played by the standard linguistic rules would be in DEEP trouble. That said, I think one of the most powerful aspects about Trump and the phenomena surrounding
him is how he as “changed the rules of the game”. That is, his entire candidacy-into-presidency has been about dancing in completely novel ways around what is publicly/politically justifiable.
Consider that one of his strategies is a kind of “double down” justification jujitsu, where he takes something that is unjustifiable on its face (like this phone call) and then plays it in an “in your face” sort of way. This is how I
see is China comment to investigate the Biden’s. That is, in the normal linguistic justification games, the President tries to deny the accusations. Obviously, this is what Bill Clinton does, and then when the dress is found as the smoking gun, he then has
to submit. Now, think about what Trump does with the China play. He basically says, publicly, this is fine to ask a foreign entity to do. Although that, of course, raises its own problems, but can be dealt with by other means, such as he was just joking.
But in terms of the social justification of the Ukraine play, it offers a clear way to counter the narrative of the transcript that Pinker is delineating. Trump obviously isn’t hiding anything, he is fine with asking foreign governments relevant questions
about possible corruption.
I am not looking to get into any political swamp here with these comments. My focus is on take home point. The game of social justification in the field of social influence is, arguably, the central, scientifically defining feature of
what makes human persons so different from other primates.
Best,
Gregg
___________________________________________
Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Graduate Psychology
216 Johnston Hall
MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
(540) 568-7857 (phone)
(540) 568-4747 (fax)
Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.
Check out my Theory of Knowledge blog at Psychology Today at:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge
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