Enlightenment now
Subtitle: the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress
By: Steven Pinker
Edition: Large print edition.
Series: Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfiction; Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfiction
Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 835
ISBN-13: 9781432853167
Subjects: Reason; Modern Civilization; Progress; Quality of life; Large type books; Humanism; Social change
Other titles: Case for reason, science, humanism, and progress
Description: Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? Cognitive scientist 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 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. Pinker makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 707-831).
Table of contents: title: Dare to understand!; title: Entro, evo, info; title: Counter-enlightenments; title: Progressophobia; title: Life; title: Health; title: Sustenance; title: Wealth; title: Inequality; title: The environment; title: Peace; title: Safety; title: Terrorism; title: Democracy; title: Equal rights; title: Knowledge; title: Quality of life; title: Happiness; title: Existential threats; title: The future of progress; title: Reason; title: Science; title: Humanism.