Enlightenment now : the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress / Steven Pinker.
2018
HM891 .P56 2018 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
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Details
Title
Enlightenment now : the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress / Steven Pinker.
ISBN
9780525427575 (hardcover)
0525427570 (hardcover)
9780698177888 (electronic book)
0525427570 (hardcover)
9780698177888 (electronic book)
Published
New York, New York : Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, [2018]
Language
English
Description
xix, 556 pages : illustrations, charts ; 25 cm
Call Number
HM891 .P56 2018
Dewey Decimal Classification
303.44
Summary
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.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 455-524) and index.
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Table of Contents
Dare to understand!
Entro, evo, info
Counter-enlightenments
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
Humanism.
Entro, evo, info
Counter-enlightenments
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
Humanism.