Steven Pinker: Enlightenment Now - The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
Is modernity really failing? Or have we failed to appreciate progress and the ideals that make it possible?
ISBN: |
9780141979090 |
Author: |
Steven Pinker |
Page: |
576 |
Binding: |
Soft cover |
Publication date: |
2019 |
Format: |
Book |
Publisher: |
PENGUIN |
Language: |
English |
Rating(No ratings so far.)
Description
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.
Reviews
No reviews so far.
Category top list
ST.MARTIN'S GRIFFIN, 2005
FINANCIAL TIMES PUBLISHING, 2008