SCIENCE AS SALVATION: GEORGE LAKOFF AND STEVEN PINKER AS SECULAR POLITICAL THEOLOGIANS

This article critically analyzes two leading cognitive scientists, George Lakoff and Steven Pinker, as competing secular political “theologians”. The idea of Science as savior is at the heart of the set of stories modernity tells about itself. The modern world, it is assumed, has left the age of religion and reached the age of Science. Lakoff and Pinker, who advocate opposing moral and political worldviews, make their claims on the basis of their scientific work, but it is implicit narratives and ontologies that give force to their broader views about morality and politics.