Conventions are unstated agreements within a community to abide by a single way of doing things - not because there is any inherent advantage to the choice, but because there is an advantage to everyone making the same choice.
Interpretation
Conventions are collective agreements that allow communities to function smoothly, even if the specific choice isn't inherently better.
The quote by Steven Pinker emphasizes the importance of conventions as unspoken agreements that facilitate cooperation within a community. These conventions exist not because one method or way of doing things is superior, but because when everyone adheres to the same standard, it creates a predictable and cohesive environment. This mutual understanding fosters social order and enhances communication, enabling communities to work more efficiently.
In practice
In a team meeting discussing project standards, this quote could highlight the importance of adhering to agreed practices.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
Nirvana is not the blowing out of the candle. It is the extinguishing of the flame because day is come.
The world is the house of the strong. I shall not know until the end what I have lost or won in this place, in this vast gambling den where I have spent more than sixty years, dice box in hand, shaking the dice.
We must recognize what in our accepted tradition is damaging to our fate and dignity-and shape our lives accordingly.
Fine words are traded. Noble deeds gain respect. But people who are not good, why abandon them?
In America right now, we use words like 'smart' to talk about bombs. American rhetoric is grounded in ideas of capital-G Good, capital-E Evil, and it's very clear who is on which side. But in a book you can do just the opposite. You can use all lower-case words.
If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.
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