Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman
Daniel Kahneman is professor of psychology and public affairs emeritus at Princeton University. He won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 2002. He is the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow.
[Editor’s Note: Daniel Kahneman is the 2002 Nobel Prize winner in economics and the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow. He is one of the most important thinkers in the world of behavioral economics, so we talked to him about his own personal behaviors. Kahneman opens up about his thoughts on God, Breaking Bad, and growing up in Jerusalem.]
Rabbi Kahaneman
Max Raskin: Let me ask you this, were you ever religious in your life?
Daniel Kahneman: No. I went to a religious school. My uncle on my father's side was one of the most famous rabbis in Israel.
MR: Who was it?
DK: He was called Rabbi Kahaneman…you can find him on Wikipedia, there is a lot about him there. There is the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, and that was his. So he was religious and my mother's family was also moderately religious.
I went to a religious school in my first year in Israel. We arrived in 1946 and until we escaped in early 1948, I was in religious school. And actually, I was still in religious school in Tel Aviv for a year, but I lost my faith.
MR: You studied Gemara and Mishnah?
DK: Yes, I did, but not intensely.
MR: Did you believe in God at the time?
DK: I must have believed because I remember very precisely the moment at which I stopped believing in God.
MR: When was that?
DK: I must have been 15, and I remember where I was because it was very sudden insight.
MR: Where were you?
DK: I was in Jerusalem, and I remember where.
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