EnlightenmentNow

The follow-up to Pinker's groundbreaking The Better Angels of Our Nature presents an overview of human progress. Despite the formidable problems we face, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. People are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and this progress is not just limited to the West, but worldwide. In seventy-five remarkable graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, and this is not just due to some cosmic force but a result of the Enlightenment project.

In his assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges people to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom that often play to their psychological biases. Instead, he emphasizes the importance of following the data. This progress made possible by the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing is not a naïve hope but a reality that we can build upon.

Despite the success of the Enlightenment, it needs a vigorous defense. Tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, and magical thinking are currents that work against it and are often exploited by demagogues. Some commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight against the Enlightenment project, leading to a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation.

Enlightenment Now urges us to embrace reason, science, and humanism, which are the ideals we need to solve our problems and continue making progress. With intellectual depth and literary flair, this book makes a compelling case for the significance of the Enlightenment project in confronting our present-day challenges.

作者简介

StevenPinkeristheHarvardCollegeProfessorofPsychologyatHarvardUniversity.Atwo-timePulitzerPrizefinalistandthewinnerofmanyawardsforhisresearch,teaching,andbooks,hehasbeennamedoneofTime‘s100MostInfluentialPeopleandoneofForeignPolicy‘s100LeadingGlobalThinkers.HisbooksincludeTheStuffofThought,TheBetterAngelsofOurNature,Th...