Enlightenment now : the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress
Steven Pinker (Author)
The follow-up to Pinker's groundbreaking The Better Angels of Our Nature presents the big picture of human progress: 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. Far from being a naive 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
Print Book, English, 2018
Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, New York, 2018
xix, 556 pages : illustrations, charts ; 25 cm
9780525427575, 9780525559023, 0525427570, 0525559027
993692045
Enlightenment. Dare to understand! ; Entro, evo, info ; Counter-enlightenments
Progress. ; Progressophobia ; Life ; Health ; Sustenance ; Wealth ; Inequality ; The environment ; Peace ; Safety ; Terrorism ; Democracy ; Equal rights ; Knowledge ; Quality of life ; Happiness ; Existential threats ; The future of progress
Reason, science, and humanism ; Reason ; Science ; Humanism
"Charts rendered by Ilavenil Subbiah" -- Title page verso