6/11/2023 0 Comments Steven pinker rationality bookThe writing in between is always engaging despite being so faithful to facts, the recitation of which in other hands might prove tedious. True, there’s a long way to go in many parts of the US and the planet to reach anything like an optimum distribution of such goods, but the arc of progress thus far is irrefutable according to the meticulously researched data Pinker presents, averaging a graph every three or four pages in the middle chapters. He finds fault with the “progressophobes” who, he says, unreasonably deny or downplay the hard facts of our betterment over the centuries: we are as a species richer in opportunity, education, freedom, security, human rights and social equality than ever before. Elaborating on a theme of his earlier publication, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker marshals a wealth of evidence for the proposition that globally we’ve made immense progress in just about all domains of human flourishing. With the very idea of a shared, objective reality in question, we’re fortunate that Steven Pinker offers a spirited defense of reason and science, and the progressive, humanistic fruits thereof, in his new book Enlightenment Now.
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