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The Conversation

Jamie Q. Roberts, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of Sydney

How does ‘common knowledge’ shape our individual lives and our societies? Steven Pinker has some ideas

Steven Pinker Christian Andersen Wikimedia Commons

Steven Pinker Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

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 these rituals, especially when the rituals involve obvious hypocrisies or are illogical.

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