Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress - Hardcover

Pinker, Steven

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241004314 ISBN 13: 9780241004319

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2018

Synopsis

'My new favourite book of all time' Bill Gates TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Is modernity really failing? Or have we failed to appreciate progress and the ideals that make it possible? If you follow the headlines, the world in the 21st century appears to be sinking into chaos, hatred, and irrationality. Yet Steven Pinker shows that this is an illusion - a symptom of historical amnesia and statistical fallacies. If you follow the trendlines rather than the headlines, you discover that our lives have become longer, healthier, safer, happier, more peaceful, more stimulating and more prosperous - not just in the West, but worldwide. Such progress is no accident: it's the gift of a coherent and inspiring value system that many of us embrace without even realizing it. These are the values of the Enlightenment: of reason, science, humanism and progress. The challenges we face today are formidable, including inequality, climate change, Artificial Intelligence and nuclear weapons. But the way to deal with them is not to sink into despair or try to lurch back to a mythical idyllic past; it's to treat them as problems we can solve, as we have solved other problems in the past. In making the case for an Enlightenment newly recharged for the 21st century, Pinker shows how we can use our faculties of reason and sympathy to solve the problems that inevitably come with being products of evolution in an indifferent universe. We will never have a perfect world, but - defying the chorus of fatalism and reaction - we can continue to make it a better one.

About this title

About the Author

Steven Pinker is one of the world's most influential thinkers and writers on the human condition. His popular and highly praised books include The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, The Stuff of Thought, The Blank Slate, How the Mind Works, and The Language Instinct. The recipient of several major awards for his teaching, books, and scientific research, Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He also writes frequently for The New York Times, the Guardian and other publications. He has been named Humanist of the Year, Prospect magazine's "The World's Top 100 Public Intellectuals," Foreign Policy's "100 Global Thinkers," and Time magazine's "The 100 Most Influential People in the World Today."

Review

My new favourite book of all time -- Bill Gates A salutary reminder of the material progress modern science and commerce have delivered * The New York Times * Words can hardly do justice to the superlative range and liveliness of Pinker's investigations * Independent * Pinker is a paragon of exactly the kind of intellectual honesty and courage we need -- David Brooks * The New York Times * If 2017 was a rough year for you, look no further than Steven Pinker's engaging new book, Enlightenment Now, to cheer you up. Conceived before Donald Trump even announced his candidacy, it could not have been better timed to clarify - and, for some, refute - the habits of mind that brought Trump and the GOP to power ... Pinker's gift is to challenge us not only to update the Enlightenment, but to think beyond it * Washington Post * Negative news is one reason why people consistently underestimate the progress humanity is making. To discern the true state of the world, Pinker says, we should use numbers. In Enlightenment Now, he does just that. The result is magnificent, uplifting and makes you want to rush to your laptop and close your Twitter account ... Pinker is surely right. Things are not falling apart. * Economist * A valuable book ... Enlightenment Now can hardly be bettered * Boston Globe * Persuasive... Pinker's book focuses on the Enlightenment as a philosophical perspective, as a distinctive way of looking at the position of individuals within modern society. Enlightenment Now is a spirited defence of the enduring ideals of this tradition * Times Higher Education * A careful and deeply researched piece of work ... Pinker is bravely prepared to be the bearer of good news * Guardian * The most uplifting work of science I've ever read * Science * A highly topical and much-needed book * New Statesman * Pinker is ahead of his critics... [he] is in no way complacent. To accuse him of smugly sipping cocktails at the End of History cafe is simply to ignore his repeated calls to work for the better future that is there for the taking, but also for the losing -- Julian Baggini * Literary Review * In his new book, Enlightenment Now, cognitive scientist Steven Pinker makes a more convincing case for the sciences benefiting the arts * New Scientist * He's one of the most original, agenda-setting writers of our time... his best book yet... this is the biggest story of our time. * Spectator * An excellent book, lucidly written, timely, rich in data and eloquent in its championing of a rational humanism that is - it turns out - really quite cool. * New York Times Book Review * It's easy to feel dour about the future of mankind. But constant, widespread doomsday prophecies are not going to help - it's only going to make matters worse. If every doomsday scenario feels possible, then people are actually disincentivized to take action, says Steven Pinker ... Things like nuclear war and climate change can, with careful and diligent work, be mitigated * CNBC * Pinker has a coherent theory of progress. * Washington Post * Shock therapy for pessimists. * Seattle Times * [Steven Pinker has] become a deep and important critic of the visceral hostility to nature and science now so sadly prevalent on the left and right, a defender of reason and the Enlightenment against the 'social justice' movements on campus, and his new book is a near-relentless defense of modernity. * New York Magazine * [ENLIGHTENMENT NOW] proves that much of the handwringing and doom-saying promulgated in the popular press, academia, and politics can't be justified on the facts. . . it's both a manifesto of ideas that [Bill] Gates himself has espoused through the years, as well as a paean to individuals, like Gates, who have committed their time and money to changing the world for the better. * Inc. * A forceful defense of the democratic, humanist institutions that [Pinker] says brought about these changes, and a declaration that reason, science and humanism can solve the problems to come. * Atlanta Journal-Constitution * Vindication has arrived in the form of Steven Pinker's latest book. ENLIGHTENMENT NOW: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress is remarkable, heart-warming, and long overdue. * Christian Science Monitor * Pinker offers numbers to show that the world has, on the whole, become safer, healthier and wealthier. These benefits are more pronounced in the West, but even in developing countries conditions have improved ... His optimism is resilient * The New York Times * Extremely hopeful... Steven Pinker argues that people are happier, healthier, wealthier, and safer than they've ever been ... we're living in the best moments humans have experienced yet * Business Insider * This broadside against cultural pessimism is brimming with surprising data and entertaining anecdotes ... it makes empirically manifest just how far humanity has come ... A genuinely enlightening book -- Jan-Werner Muller * Financial Times * Pinker is a deep and important critic of the visceral hostility to nature and science now so sadly prevalent on the left and right, a defender of reason and the Enlightenment ... Pinker is right -- Andrew Sullivan * New York Magazine * An erudite defence * Salon * A bold, wonderfully expansive and occasionally irate defence of scientific rationality and liberal humanism ... Pinker is up for a fight, and his main weapon is quantitative data ... the litany of facts is awesome, covering health, wealth, inequality, the environment, peace, democracy ... The confidence with which Pinker tears through the issues that cause such deep anxiety today, such as rising inequality and global warming, is compelling * Guardian * Modern life has gotten much better despite ever-present complaints. Technology has reduced the need for physical labor. Mortality rates are down. IQ scores are on the rise. Wars are less frequent and less deadly ... the Enlightenment's championing of reason, science, humanism and moral progress is a model for our own times * Washington Post * Pinker is right ... Much good news today tends to be underreported, even unreported. Human beings today lead longer, safer, healthier, wealthier and indeed happier lives than at any point in recorded history ... Pinker surveys the stupendous advancements that the human race has made in modern times according to a dizzying range of metrics * Nation * An engaging, compelling set of reasons to be cheerful ... it is a welcome antidote * Nature * The world is better than ever before. And Steven Pinker can prove it. * Vox * A substantial and wide-ranging book on the state of our world today ... In forensic detail, Pinker enumerates the myriad ways in which life is getting better ... The book is packed with statistics vaunting the gifts of progress * Irish Times * After devouring all 453 pages and 75 graphs of psychologist Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now, I admit defeat. The defeat of defeatism. This man has done the math. Since the 18th century things have been getting better in pretty much every dimension of human wellbeing. * Big Think * Steven Pinker has a cure for your despair ... life is better than it has ever been. Pinker's case is compelling * Prospect * Useful and exciting ... Pinker doesn't declaim, he demonstrates - with dozens of graphs and charts - that humankind has spent two centuries winning the battle against entropy in all fields: from health to peace, the environment to democracy, wealth to happiness, to equality between men and women. He asks us crucial questions ... Steven Pinker is right * El Mundo (Spain) * Enlightenment Now seeks to undo, with facts and figures, the pessimism that has paralysed the world ... We must read this book and absorb its message * El Pais (Colombia) * Guys, it's really not that bad. In fact, it's the best it's ever been ... Pinker urges people to look at the bigger picture and dive into the data * New York Post * To cut a long story short, Pinker is right. Not just a bit right, but completely, utterly, incontrovertibly right ... When I picked up Pinker's book, I had my doubts. But by the time I finished it, I was converted -- Dominic Sandbrook * Daily Mail * Things are not as bad as your Facebook news feed makes them seem ... a cheerful, contrarian tract for dark times -- Niall Ferguson * Boston Globe * Compelling ... At a moment when liberal Enlightenment values are under attack, from the right and the left, this is a very important contribution ... An impressive and useful accomplishment * Atlantic *

Edition details

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0241004314
• ISBN 13: 9780241004319
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 576