|aEnlightenment now :|bthe case for reason, science, humanism, and progress /|cSteven Pinker.
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|athe case for reason, science, humanism, and progress
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|aNew York, New York :|bPenguin Books,|c2019.
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|axvii, 556 p. :|bill. ;|c22 cm
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|aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [455]-524) and index.
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|aThe follow-up to Pinker's groundbreaking The Better Angels of Our Nature presents the big picture of human progress: 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. Far from being a naive 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.