Morey Arthur - Enlightenment now: the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress

Praise for Enlightenment Now

An excellent book, lucidly written, timely, rich in data, and eloquent in its championing of a rational humanism that isit turns outreally quite cool.

Sarah Bakewell, New York Times Book Review

For years, Ive been saying Steven Pinkers The Better Angels of Our Nature was the best book Id read in a decade.... Pinker has managed to top himself.... I was already familiar with a lot of the information he sharesespecially about health and energybut he understands each subject so deeply that hes able to articulate his case in a way that feels fresh and new.... The world is getting better, even if it doesnt always feel that way. Im glad we have brilliant thinkers like Steven Pinker to help us see the big picture. Enlightenment Now is not only the best book Pinkers ever written. Its my new favorite book of all time.

Bill Gates

A terrific book... [Pinker] recounts the progress across a broad array of metrics, from health to wars, the environment to happiness, equal rights to quality of life.

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times

Steven Pinkers book is full of vigor and vim, and it sets out to inspire a similar energy in its readers. An exhaustive, compelling, and uplifting account of human progress.... Beautifully written.

Charles Kenny, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas

Magnificent, uplifting, and makes you want to rush to your laptop and close your Twitter account.

The Economist

[A] magisterial new book... Enlightenment Now is the most uplifting work of science Ive ever read.

Michael Shermer, Science

Awesome. The confidence with which Pinker tears through the issues that cause such deep anxiety today is compelling.

William Davies, The Guardian (UK)

Extols the amazing achievements of modernity, and demonstrates that humankind has never been so peaceful, healthy, and prosperous.

Yuval Noah Harari, The Guardian (UK)

Pinker is ahead of his critics... To accuse him of smugly sipping cocktails at the End of History caf is simply to ignore his repeated calls to work for the better future that is there for the taking, but also for the losing.

Julian Baggini, The Literary Review

Its about the many ways in which the world is improving... and why we dont believe it.... This is the biggest story of our time.

Fraser Nelson, The Spectator (UK)

[Pinker] is right. Not just a bit right, but completely, utterly, incontrovertibly right.

Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Mail (UK)

A characteristically fluent, decisive, and data-rich demonstration of why, given the chance to live at any point in human history, only a stone-cold idiot would choose any time other than the present.

Sam Leith, The Spectator (UK)

Compelling... At a moment when [liberal Enlightenment] values are under attack, from the right and the left, this is a very important contribution.

The Atlantic

Remarkable, heart-warming, and long overdue.

Rayyan Al-Shawaf, The Christian Science Monitor

With Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker has written the best book on progress that is currently in print. Or ebook. Or audiobook.

Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

Gripping, provocative.... An important and timely book.

David Wootton, Times Literary Supplement

Pinker is a paragon of exactly the kind of intellectual honesty and courage we need to restore conversation and community, and the students are right to revere him.

David Brooks, New York Times

Steven Pinkers mind bristles with pure, crystalline intelligence, deep knowledge, and human sympathy. And he writes as he thinks, with a sinewy mot-justery of language which I find irresistible.

Richard Dawkins

A passionate and persuasive defense of reason and science... [and] an urgently needed reminder that progress is, to no small extent, a result of values that have served usand can serve usextraordinarily well.

Glenn C. Altschuler, The Philadelphia Inquirer

If 2017 was a rough year for you, look no further than Steven Pinkers engaging new book, Enlightenment Now, to cheer you up. Conceived before Donald Trump even announced his candidacy, it could not have been better timed to clarifyand, for some, refutethe habits of mind that brought Trump and the GOP to power.... Pinkers gift is to challenge us not only to update the Enlightenment but to think beyond it.

Caroline Winterer, The Washington Post

A meticulous defense of science and objective analysis, [and] a rebuttal to the tribalism, knee-jerk partisanship, and disinformation that taints our politics.

Kevin Canfield, San Francisco Chronicle

Brimming with surprising data and entertaining anecdotes.

Jan-Werner Mller, Financial Times

As an intellectual case, Enlightenment Now is formidable.

Janan Ganesh, Financial Times

Lets stop once in a while to enjoy the viewIm glad Pinker is pushing for this in a world that does it too rarely.... Its hard not to be convinced.

Jacy Reese, Quartz

As a demonstration of the value of reason, knowledge, and curiosity, Enlightenment Now can hardly be bettered.

Robert Wilson, The Boston Globe

With a wealth of knowledge, graphs, and statistics, a strong grasp of history, and an engaging style of writing... Enlightenment Now provides a convincing case for gratitude.

James Lanigan, Pittsburgh Post Gazette

A forceful defense of the democratic, humanist institutions that [Pinker] says brought about these changes, and a declaration that reason, science, and humanism can solve the problems to come.

Bo Emerson, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A masterly defense of the values of modernity against progressophobes.

Biancamaria Fontana, Times Higher Education

Enlightenment Now strikes a powerful blow against the contemporary mystifications being peddled by tribalists on both the left and the right.

Ronald Bailey, Reason

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard, where he conducts research on cognition, language, and social relations. His prizewinning books include The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Stuff of Thought, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and The Sense of Style. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, has won many prizes for his teaching and research, and is listed as one of the worlds most influential thinkers by Time, Foreign Policy, and other magazines. He also chairs the usage panel of The American Heritage Dictionary.

ALSO BY STEVEN PINKER

Language Learnability and Language Development

Learnability and Cognition

The Language Instinct

How the Mind Works

Words and Rules

The Blank Slate

The Stuff of Thought

The Better Angels of Our Nature

Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: Selected Articles

The Sense of Style

EDITED BY STEVEN PINKER

Visual Cognition

Connections and Symbols (with Jacques Mehler)

Lexical and Conceptual Semantics (with Beth Levin)

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004