"It's my favorite book." - Bill Gates

If you think the world's end will come, you'll have to think twice. Stephen Pinker presents a big picture of human progress: people live longer, healthier, more free, happier lives, but the problems we have are horrendously threatening, It is in the ideal of awakening using science.

Is the world really broken? Is the progressive ideal a keel? Through this clear assessment of the human condition of the third millennium AD, Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist and social participant intellectual, took a step back from the predictions of the violence headlines and the end of the world affecting our psychological prejudice I give advice.

Instead, I recommend following the following data: Through 75 amazing charts, Pinker shows that life, health, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are steadily improving. It is getting better not only in the West but also around the world. This human progress is not the result of the vague universal force. It is the product of conviction and awareness of reason and science that enhances the prosperity of mankind.

"Enlightenment", far from naive hope, was effective. But above all, what is needed is active defense. The project of Enlightenment runs counter to the currents of the human nature (tribalism, authoritarianism, evil shamanism, surrealistic thinking) that agitators abuse. And many social commentators who are confined to political, religious, and romantic ideals are only fighting without "enlightenment". The result is a corrupt fatalism and an attempt to weaken the precious functions of global cooperation and democracy.

"Enlightenment Now", which consists of author's intellectual depth and excellent literary sense, claims reason, science, and humanism. And it contains the ideals necessary to sustain our progress and to face the challenges we face.

"My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates

"A terrific book ... [Pinker] recounts the progress of a broad array of metrics, from health to wars, the environment to happiness, equal rights to quality of life." --The New York Times

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 our solutions 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? Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and the prophecies of doom, which we play in 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 the reason and science can enhance human flourishing.

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 against 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

Steven PinkerBorn in 1954 in Montreal, Canada. He majored in experimental psychology at McGill University and went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA in 1976. After graduating from Harvard University and MIT, he received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1979 and a year as an assistant professor. He then went on to Stanford University as an assistant professor for a year. Since 1982, he has been a professor of psychology at MIT for 21 years. In 2003, he returned to Harvard University and taught linguistic psychology and evolutionary psychology on the subject of human nature. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules, The Blank Slate, He has won several awards for his work, including The Stuff of Thought, and has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize. Professor and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Cognitive Science. He was awarded the Distinguished Early Career Award, the McCandless Young Developmental Psychologist Award from the American Psychological Association, and the Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences for a study of visual cognition and language acquisition by the child. In 1986, the 'Esquire Register' He was also chosen as a distinguished person. He currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.