Probably Hobbes got it right when he said that a leviathan, a third party with a monopoly on the use of legitimate use of force in a territory, might be among the biggest violence reduction techniques ever invented.
Interpretation
Hobbes suggests that a powerful governing body can help reduce violence by monopolizing force.
In this quote, Steven Pinker references Thomas Hobbes' idea that a strong central authority, or 'Leviathan', is essential for maintaining order and reducing violence in society. By having a single entity that holds the legitimate use of force, it can intervene in disputes and prevent chaos, thus creating a more peaceful society.
In practice
In a debate about the role of government in society, one might use this quote to argue for a strong central authority.
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.
We need not be theologians to see that we have shifted responsibility for making the world interesting from God to the newspaperman.
We all live every day in virtual environments, defined by our ideas.
The future is like heaven-everyone exalts it but no one wants to go there now.
I am the angel of Reality, Seen for a moment standing in the door.
I've seen lawyers who don't represent me and spokespeople who do not know me speaking for me. These characters always seem to surface with dreadful allegations just as another project, an album, a video is being released.
I would say that normally it is the creative minorities that determine the future, and in this sense, the Catholic Church must understand itself as a creative minority that has a heritage of values that are not things of the past, but a very living and relevant reality.
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