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

Published: 8 January 2019
ISBN: 9780141979090
Imprint: Penguin Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 576
RRP: $30.00

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Science

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

Steven Pinker

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One of the world's greatest thinkers tells the heroic story of human progress - and why we neglect it at our peril.

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, as Steven Pinker shows, if you follow the trendlines, you discover that our lives have become longer, healthier, safer and more prosperous - not just in the West, but worldwide. Such progress is no accident: it's the gift of a coherent 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. 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. This is the case for an Enlightenment newly recharged for the 21st century.

Published: 8 January 2019
ISBN: 9780141979090
Imprint: Penguin Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 576
RRP: $30.00

Categories:

Science

Share…

About the author

Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is one of the world's leading authorities on language and the mind. His popular and highly praised books include Words and Rules, How the Mind Works, and The Language Instinct. The recipient of several major awards for his teaching and scientific research, Pinker is Peter de Florez professor of psychology in the department of brain and cognitive sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

http://stevenpinker.com

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

This is the biggest story of our time. It's about the many ways in which the world is improving, and why we don't believe it
Fraser Nelson, Spectator

Exhilarating, magnificent, uplifting
Economist

Pinker is right. Not just a bit right, but completely, utterly, incontrovertibly right . . . for most people, life is better, even if they don't realise it
Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Mail

A goldmine of startling graphs and killer facts about the way we live now. Everyone should read this book and, just for once, be enthralled by what humankind has achieved
Iain Macwhirter, Herald