When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...

<p><b>One of the world¿s greatest thinkers investigates the logic and psychology of common knowledge <br><br></b>As a cognitive scientist, the ultimate subject of Steven Pinker¿s fascination is how we think about each other¿s thoughts, ad infinitum. It sounds impossible, but Steven Pinker shows that we do it all the time. This awareness, which we experience as something that is public or ¿out there,¿ is called <i>common knowledge, </i>and it has a momentous impact on our social, political, and economic lives.<br><br>Common knowledge, Pinker shows, can make sense of many of life¿s enigmas: financial bubbles and crashes, revolutions that come out of nowhere, the posturing and pretence of diplomacy, the eruption of social media shaming mobs and academic cancel culture, the awkwardness of a first date. But people also go to great lengths to <i>avoid </i>common knowledge¿to ensure that even if everyone knows something, they can¿t know that everyone else knows they know it. And so we get rit