The 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.
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.
##万维刚精英日课2解读 资本主义的逻辑是演化,启蒙的逻辑是理性。你永远都不知道下一个好东西会发生在什么地方 —— 就好像基因突变一样。但是因为你有理性,你一旦看到好东西会识别和使用它 —— 就好像自然选择一样。只要这两个逻辑继续有效,那么启蒙运动三百年来的进步,就会继续进行下去。
评分##在英语写作上,Pinker是一流的。但在政治议题上,作为一个典型的globalist,他的观点天真,甚至愚蠢。Pinker对于“科学”有着近乎宗教般的虔诚,但是所谓科学,只是当前人类对于世界的理解,而这个理解是局限的,并不一定是绝对真理。历史已经反复证明了,前人的“科学”会不断地被后人的发现推翻。
评分##astonished. 论文也可以这么好看有趣信息量巨大
评分##此书可以颠覆人们关于自身处境和当前人类境况的错误观点与感性判断。作者对于人类的现在和未来,抱持鲜明且有理有据的乐观态度。用数据和事实证明,当今这个时代,是人类历史上最好的时代。不只是比历史好一点,而是好很多。不只是在某几个方面,远超以往的时代。而是在几乎所有方面,都优于过去。这一切进步和成就,源于对启蒙运动核心观念的践行:理性、科学、人文主义。这些观念和价值,需要通过新一轮启蒙运动来捍卫并发扬。它们是人类及每位个体解决自身所面临的问题的终极武器。
评分##真的是一本很神奇的书,神奇在于开始看的时候就知道主题是论证世界变得更好,不过就是堆积数据来论证罢了,结果看完之后像被洗脑一样,坚信世界会越来越好,我们处于最好的时代,而且作者文笔真不错,知识范围广,能感受到文字的力量。
评分##看过觉得心态稍微好一点,但是最近疫情洗礼得,感觉又要抑郁了,真的是,越看新闻越抑郁
评分##此书可以颠覆人们关于自身处境和当前人类境况的错误观点与感性判断。作者对于人类的现在和未来,抱持鲜明且有理有据的乐观态度。用数据和事实证明,当今这个时代,是人类历史上最好的时代。不只是比历史好一点,而是好很多。不只是在某几个方面,远超以往的时代。而是在几乎所有方面,都优于过去。这一切进步和成就,源于对启蒙运动核心观念的践行:理性、科学、人文主义。这些观念和价值,需要通过新一轮启蒙运动来捍卫并发扬。它们是人类及每位个体解决自身所面临的问题的终极武器。
评分##Somewhat repetitive, but the quality of writing makes up for it. Each chapter is a great writing sample.
评分##Pinker 怒了
本站所有内容均为互联网搜索引擎提供的公开搜索信息,本站不存储任何数据与内容,任何内容与数据均与本站无关,如有需要请联系相关搜索引擎包括但不限于百度,google,bing,sogou 等
© 2026 book.teaonline.club All Rights Reserved. 图书大百科 版权所有