Today, you may be wrestling with what "progress" means — whether it's in relation to your own journey, your family’s, or your community’s. What do you want? And how will you get there?
In this episode, two Harvard professors explore these questions. In this 40-minute Forum excerpt, you’ll hear first from Tyler VanderWeele, the director of Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program. Tyler is in dialogue with Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard and author of the best-selling book, Enlightenment Now. Tyler and Steven discuss their differing beliefs about what it means to be human, the role of faith in human flourishing, and if humanity tends towards dystopia or utopia. Their discussion is moderated by Rosalind Picard, a professor at MIT’s Media Lab and an inventor. This Forum was held on MIT's campus in Spring 2023.
If we're hoping for a perfect rationality or a perfect goodness in this life, I think we're we're bound to be disappointed. And, for that, I would suggest our ultimate hope is in a different horizon. I hope in God to bring about a more final and complete transformation.
If greatness is your goal, then all the knowledge in the world is not going to make us better off. It has to be a combination of understanding how the world works and using that knowledge to make people better off.
Science can help point towards what's good but can't make a person good.
The problem with human freedom is people can have the freedom to screw up their lives.
I do think there is sort of a brokenness to the to the human person. I think even when we want to do good, we often do not. There is a need for some sort of help and restoration in that regard.
