Steven Pinker

An assessment of the human condition in the twenty-first century presents data demonstrating that life quality, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise throughout the world because of the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science.

The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

Enlightenment Now

'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.

Nenad Nikolic

Possibly the best book of our times. The depth of Pinker’s thought is astonishing and a reminder of how great human beings can become. It is difficult for me to summarize what I had just read because it feels I had read a summary of human knowledge of reality, human nature and our place in the world. It also is a brilliant road sign for anyone yet to understand where they should go to. I am certainly convinced.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR "My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: 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. Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual 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 jaw-dropping 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. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.

Bouke van der Bijl

Pinker argues that things are getting a lot better for a lot of people, and we can make them better still into the future if we keep innovating and improving. Although he explicitly acknowledges that there are some big dangers on the horizon (climate change) that need to be addressed. Good read if you want to feel warm and fuzzy about the world

Nick Gracilla

“Engagement with politics is like sports fandom in another way: people seek and consume news to enhance the fan experience, not to make their opinions more accurate.”

This is a vast book. A defense of human progress by the numbers (spoiler alert: over the course of human history, things are looking great); a defense of science and reason; and at its best, a defense of humanism writ large, with its goal of maximizing human flourishing, life, health, happiness, freedom, knowledge, love, and the richness of experience. One CAN steer a path between theistic morality, authoritarian populism, and postmodern relativism—and Pinker dives deep to understand the intellectual history of these movements both right and left, as well as their fallacies, absurdities, and (mostly poor) historical outcomes. In short, we’ve made a lot of progress, humankind, and it has been on the basis of the Enlightenment ideals of scientific advancement, reason, and humanistic values. It’s not inevitable, and there will be setbacks. Let’s not screw it up.

Nelson Zagalo

Uma rápida passagem pelas discussões genéricas em redor de “Enlightenment Now” passa a ideia de que uma boa parte não o leu, focando-se mais nas entrevistas e textos promocionais da obra do que no texto em si. Parece existir uma fixação da elite intelectual, mais de esquerda, em atacar os dados quantitativos e otimistas de Pinker, e uma fixação da elite científica, mais à direita, em defender esses mesmos dados. Quanto ao progresso visível nos dados, passo a discussão, Pinker não diz nada que Hans Rosling não tenha já dito em “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think” (2018) (análise). Por outro lado, é tonto, para não dizer algo mais rude, ver Pinker ao longo de todo o livro a acicatar estes dois grupos de pessoas, querendo ele próprio colocar-se de fora, citando amiúde a seminal obra de CP Snow “The Two Cultures” (1959), mas de cada vez que o faz só se afunda mais num desses lados. Repare-se que estas duas culturas — que prefiro sintetizar pelos perfis dos modelos mentais, lógicos e ambíguos —, não são uma invenção do século XX, elas estão presentes desde a oposição entre Platão e Aristóteles, passando pela oposição entre Descartes e Hume, chegando aos estereótipos delineados por William James — “tender-minded” vs. “tough-minded” — que C.P. Snow opta por diferenciar como — “cientistas” e “intelectuais literários” — e que podemos apresentar, nos dias de hoje como — positivistas e interpretivistas (ver imagem).
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Tendo em conta o interesse mais limitado da resenha deste livro, pela sua natureza académica, o resto da resenha, ligações e imagens podem ser lidas no blog.

https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...

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.

Mounir Bashour

Diana Platgalve

** spoiler alert **
           Steven Pinker in his meta-analysis Enlightenment Now is arguing for liberal-cosmopolitan-enlightenment-humanistic worldview. He is addressing 4 Ideals of the 18th century Enlightenment: Science, Reason, Humanism, and Progress, defending those ideals with data. He is addressing our inner demons (such as biases, illusions, tribalism, vengeance) and offering alternative system of beliefs and values.

In the first part of the book he is addressing principles and ideals of the Enlightenment, noting that our common habits of thought are not particularly reasonable. He makes a point that great thinkers of the Enlightenment did escape ignorance and superstition of conventional wisdom via open debate, empirical testing, and scepticism to achieve reliable knowledge. For him, understanding the human condition requires 3 keystones: entropy, information (as a reduction in entropy), evolution. As well he is briefly addressing main elements of the counter-enlightenments (as the Romantic movement, religious faith, nationalism etc.)

Second part of the book is dedicated to unravel the reality of progress, addressing various topics, as health, wealth, inequality, environment, peace, safety, terrorism and others. He is discussing availability bias (we create a picture in mind using the examples that most easily come to mind) which leads us to overestimating risk. For example, he makes a point that having an incorrect idea of risk leads us to think that terror attacks are more likely than they actually are. This bias leads us to think more dramatically, and using data-graphs he's inviting us to think more quantitatively. In addition to that, negative bias leads us to have bigger emotional response to negative news than positive, therefore he is addressing progress via deep trendlines, again emphasizing that to have an accurate view of the world you have to look for quantitative data. 

The third part of the book is designated to the drivers of progress: reason, science, and humanism. In this part he is still dealing with counter-enlightenment, mostly populism, religious dogma and tribalism. He is often returning to the point "correlation not causation" where not only ordinary people get lost, but even scientific peers. He admits that solutions create new problems, which require certain time to be fixed, but we are on a continuous process of discovery and betterment. 

Overall, I agree with his reasoning that knowledge enhances human flourishing. His proposed ideals have been defended. I am convinced that certain people will take his encouragement for: intellectual curiosity, open debate, scepticism of authority and dogma, proof to verify ideas and confront them against reality and will be concerned about the main message than certain passages.

I have noticed that a lot of criticism for this book comes for Pinker's cherry-picking: showing the data that fits his idea of progress. Another criticism I've seen against the book is regarding sources of data and references (most of which comes from critics own confirmation biases). Anyways, here I’d emphasise the meta level of the book. The essential message for returning to reason, acknowledging progress, and aiming for betterment of humanity through the Ideals of the Enlightenment. 

Personally, I’d love him to discuss in more detail the scientific method, specially in its aims to reduce biases when it can. 

Anyhow, I recommend to read this book no matter the criticism against it because it offers an alternative viewpoint to human condition- other than represented in the news. This book is in defence of science, and there are his personal political views, but by reading it you can notice your own bias and by criticising it you can see yourself at cherry picking.

Jack Baty

Colton McCurdy

Bruno Costa Teixeira

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR AND A PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT "My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: 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. Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual 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 jaw-dropping 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. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.

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

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