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

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Arthur Morey

19 Hours 49 Minutes

Penguin Books LTD

February 2018

Audio Book Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

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 realising 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.

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© Steven Pinker 2018 (P) Penguin Audio 2018

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Reviews

  • James D.

    Plain language. Straightforward writer. Easily takes complex issues and deconstructs them in a manner so that a 13 year old could understand.

    Book Rating

  • Richard B.

    This is yet another important masterpiece by Pinker, but not quite perfect. He talks extensively throughout the book about Tronald Dump and what caused him, but he never actually figured it out. He neglects to recognize that the primary reason Dump beat Hillary was because she was widely hated by both progressives and conservatards, and she was hated, not just because of her obnoxiously ignorant personality, but because she represented Neo-liberalism to an extreme degree, and was openly sponsored by Wall Street executives and the millionaire / billionaire class of which she is a leading member. Pinker might want to read Chomsky's thesis on Hillary's loss before he professes to us, the working class, about it. Sadly Pinker is a bit of a Neo-liberal himself. Ironically he professes throughout the book on the problems of cognitive bias but can't recognize his own political bias in regards to the needs and wants of the working class. He correctly labels Dump a demagogue but also says he's a populist but never recognizes that Bernie was the actual populist in that election whereas Dump was a fake populist, and there is a huge distinction between the two which is never mentioned. I have other minor disagreements with Pinker in this book and his previous book as well, but even still I consider both very important works by Pinker that need to be read.

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