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

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.

Do you see what I just did with my opening paragraph?

Obviously, through a brief personal reflection, I tried to give you a general sense of what much of Steven Pinker’s book When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows is about: namely, that we often perform perplexing rituals for the sake of harmony, and if we draw attention to the quizzical aspects of those rituals – if we make these aspects common knowledge – we can get into trouble.

But I also did something else. I started with the innocuous, “I don’t know about you…”

Now hold on tight. This gets complicated very fast. Just like Pinker’s book.

The thing is, I do believe that many people are bemused by the rituals we perform and the silences we must keep. But I wouldn’t say that this phenomenon is itself common knowledge.

More accurately, I wouldn’t say that I know that you know that this is common knowledge. And I also wouldn’t say that I know...

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