史帝芬·平克论何为博雅教育 Supporting tagline
来自《新共和》杂志的一篇好文：
I think we can be more specific. It seems to me that educated people should know something about the 13-billion-year prehistory of our species and the basic laws governing the physical and living world, including our bodies and brains. They should grasp the timeline of human history from the dawn of agriculture to the present. They should be exposed to the diversity of human cultures, and the major systems of belief and value with which they have made sense of their lives. They should know about the formative events in human history, including the blunders we can hope not to repeat. They should understand the principles behind democratic governance and the rule of law. They should know how to appreciate works of fiction and art as sources of aesthetic pleasure and as impetuses to reflect on the human condition.
平克認爲，一個好的人文教育應當教會學生這些東西：
學生應當知曉地球上的不同生物是經過近130億年的演化才發展成今天的形態，他們應當要知道是什麼樣的法則在指導物理世界以及生物世界，包括有什麼樣的法則在指導我們的身體和我們的大腦。學生應當要了解人類從農業發展之初到現在的歷史。他們應當要了解人類文化以及信念和價值體系的多元性，很多人是基於這些信念來生活。學生還應當了解人類歷史上具有轉變意義的事件，並且學會不再重犯同類錯誤的智慧。他們還應當了解一個民主的政府是如何運作的，還有法治是怎樣一回事。他們還應當學會鑑賞小說以及藝術，並且意識到這些東西是能夠帶來美學上的愉悅的源泉，同時也是讓人們得以反思人類之生存狀態的契機。
On top of this knowledge, a liberal education should make certain habits of rationality second nature. Educated people should be able to express complex ideas in clear writing and speech.
They should appreciate that objective knowledge is a precious commodity, and know how to distinguish vetted fact from superstition, rumor, and unexamined conventional wisdom. They should know how to reason logically and statistically, avoiding the fallacies and biases to which the untutored human mind is vulnerable.
除了上述的知識以外，人文教育應當要讓理性思考的習慣成爲我們的第二天性。受過教育的人們應當能夠通過寫作或者是演說將他們的想法表達出來。他們應當要明白，客觀的知識是一種非常珍貴的資源，並且要學會分辨出哪些是經得起考驗的事實，哪些只是迷信、謠言、或者是未經檢驗的傳統智慧。他們應當要學會邏輯論證，基於統計學去看問題，由此避免沒有經過訓練的大腦很容易會犯下的一些錯誤。
They should think causally rather than magically, and know what it takes to distinguish causation from correlation and coincidence. They should be acutely aware of human fallibility, most notably their own, and appreciate that people who disagree with them are not stupid or evil. Accordingly, they should appreciate the value of trying to change minds by persuasion rather than intimidation or demagoguery.
他們要學會因果思考，而不是憑空想像。要學會分辨因果以及相關事件，還有偶然事件。他們應當非常敏銳的注意到人類自身容易犯錯誤，並且很多時候就是由於自己的錯，進而思考到，那些跟他們觀點不一樣的人，並不是因爲他們愚蠢或者是邪惡。也因此，假如你要改變人的心智的話，嘗試使用說服的手段，而不是威脅或者煽動的辦法。