Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018
ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR
"My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates
If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. By the author of the new book, Rationality.
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.
Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation.
With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018
ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR
"My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates
If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. By the author of the new book, Rationality.
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.
Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation.
With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.
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Community Reviews
It took me a long time to read this. Dry books with lots of statistics do that to me. It's very interesting, but I just couldn't read it for long stretches, because it doesn't hold my attention for long. I wish I could memorize the facts in it. I have a number of older friends in my old book club who would go on about how much worse the world is now than it used to be, and I wish I could make them read this book! However, being dry doesn't lessen the message of the book, and I recommend it to anyone seriously interested in the state of the world.
I read this because Bill Gates said we should all read it (here's his review: https://gatesnotes.com/Books/Enlightenment-Now). I thought this book was pretty interesting and engaging even if at times I found it unpersuasive. The concept is basically that things have gotten better throughout history (I believe this) and that they will continue to get better. Furthermore, a belief that they will get better is inspirational to people to make it so, whereas a belief that everything is on the decline is discouraging and causes people to give up. So far so good.
I also agree with some of his cultural complaints about the left. I am a liberal so I'm not being snarky but vitriolic reactions from the left seem to be getting more common among regular people (as opposed to leaders of movements, politicians, and celebrities).
But there were some issues with his ideas and facts better explained by some angry environmentalists: https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/07/environmental-calamity-facts-steven-pinker. To be fair, he definitely does NOT deny global warming/climate change or the potential of a human calamity, he just thinks we're going to save the world with an informed and increasingly progressive populace and new technologies.
And just more generally, you can't dismiss "black swans" based on statistics. That's the whole point of black swans! So yeah, I'm not convinced that something catastrophic won't suddenly smite us, whether it's an unexpected consequence of advancing climate change or something totally unanticipated.
I also agree with some of his cultural complaints about the left. I am a liberal so I'm not being snarky but vitriolic reactions from the left seem to be getting more common among regular people (as opposed to leaders of movements, politicians, and celebrities).
But there were some issues with his ideas and facts better explained by some angry environmentalists: https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/07/environmental-calamity-facts-steven-pinker. To be fair, he definitely does NOT deny global warming/climate change or the potential of a human calamity, he just thinks we're going to save the world with an informed and increasingly progressive populace and new technologies.
And just more generally, you can't dismiss "black swans" based on statistics. That's the whole point of black swans! So yeah, I'm not convinced that something catastrophic won't suddenly smite us, whether it's an unexpected consequence of advancing climate change or something totally unanticipated.
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