Name: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
Price: 46.80 NZD
Availability: InStock
Author: Pinker, Steven
ISBN: 9780525427575

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

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

Type

Physical Book

Author

Steven Pinker

Publisher

Viking

Year

2018

Language

English

Pages

576

Format

Hardcover

ISBN13

9780525427575

Edition No.

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

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018ONE 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.

Steven Pinker

(Author)

View Author's Page

Steven Pinker (Montreal, Canada, September 18, 1954) is one of the most influential psychologists, linguists, and science communicators internationally. With a PhD from Harvard and currently a professor at that university, his work has revolutionized the understanding of language, the mind, and human nature, advocating theories about linguistic instincts, the evolution of thought, and the power of reason. Among his most famous books are The Language Instinct (1994), How the Mind Works (1997, Pulitzer finalist), The Blank Slate (2002), The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011), Enlightenment Now (2018), and Rationality (2021), essential works addressing everything from the reduction of violence to the role of humanism and science in social progress.

Recognized for his rigor and clarity of exposition, Pinker has been included among the world's most influential thinkers by Time, Foreign Policy, and Prospect. He has received accolades such as the William James Book Prize (three times), the Los Angeles Times Science Book Prize, the George Miller Prize, the Humanist of the Year, and the Frontiers of Knowledge Award from the BBVA Foundation (2022). He was a Pulitzer finalist on two occasions and has received honorary doctorates in various countries. His work as a communicator and his defense of critical thinking and empirical evidence have established him as an essential voice for understanding the mind and human progress in the 21st century.

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