The murmurs in Cowan Hall grew steadily silent as Otterbein professor Meredith Frey introduced Harvard professor Dr. Steven Pinker.
Yesterday, Otterbein students were introduced to Pinker, who spoke on the history of violence and how it has radically declined throughout the years.
Students were also encouraged to attend a technical lecture that Pinker gave to psychology students.
Pinker has appeared on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list and he’s written several books on the psychology of linguistics, the most recent being “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.”
Most of his presentation centered on six major declines of violence: pacification process, ethnographic vital statistics, the humanitarian revolution, the long peace, the new peace, and rights revolutions.
Through graphs and charts, Pinker showed that “until 5,000 years ago, humans lived in anarchy.”
The rate of genocide and death by violence has decreased dramatically since then, especially in state societies.
The abolition of death penalties for nonlethal crimes, the Enlightenment Era, which valued rational thought over religious superstition, and higher literacy rates have contributed to this intense decrease.
Pinker also addressed rights revolutions of racial minorities, women, children and homosexuals and how society has seen a steady decline in the number of hate crimes against these groups.
After speaking about what historical elements have brought out “Better Angels,” Dr. Pinker allowed the audience to ask questions.
Though he disputed many of the audience’s theories, he remained soft-spoken, eloquent, but never too condescending.
Otterbein students were encouraged to meet with Dr. Pinker for a banquet in Roush Hall immediately following his speech.
