Enlightenment now : : the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

Locations
Call Number: 303.44 Pi, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / Psychology / Pinker, Steven
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	303.44 Pi	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	303.44 Pi	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	303.44 Pi	4-week checkout	Due 05-23-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	303.44 Pi	4-week checkout	Due 05-20-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / Psychology / Pinker, Steven	4-week checkout	Due 05-18-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / Psychology / Pinker, Steven	4-week checkout	Due 05-23-2024

Part I: Enlightenment. Dare to understand! -- Entro, evo, info -- Counter-enlightenments -- Part II: 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 -- Part III: Reason, science, and humanism. Reason -- Science -- Humanism.
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 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.
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.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Library Journal Review
CHOICE Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Excerpt
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

The case for progress and Enlightenment values submitted by sVfGI7Glt2pz7GZgVB90 on August 11, 2019, 8:49am Tackles 21st-century doom and gloom with a dynamic justification of reason, science and progress. The author quotes numerous statistics presenting how people are richer, wealthier, and live longer than any other time in history. Hundreds of examples give ample reason for optimism as we navigate this era of confusion and frustration. Not an easy read: this dense book contains many profound ideas.

Overpromises submitted by emaelshaikh on August 18, 2022, 4:43pm and underdelivers. Pinker is so overrated