具体描述
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.
用户评价
##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。
##卖弄词藻，晦涩难懂！
##我的求生欲真的挺强，刚对人类社会产生巨大失落感，马上开始高强度阅读Steven Pinker试图缓解局势，重新相信我们在发展进步、世界在变好……具体效果待定，可能要加大马力来激活我逐渐被掩埋的乐观主义。 不患寡而不均的思维方式不可取，用发展的角度解决环境问题，民主的代价与价值……还是忍不住联想到疫情，不知这一场天灾人祸之后，世界会如何改变。
##人类的进步绝对不是误打误撞的奇迹，而是理性在暗夜里英雄主义的抗争。平克也绝非沦于精英主义的自我陶醉，而是恰如其分的阐释启蒙思想这个稀释在几个世纪里的概念的现世意义。
主旨就是从各方面花式论证人类在变好，赞美启蒙思想的意义和效果。有的章节论证比较充分令人信服，但是部分章节也很牵强，选择的数据图表都是有利于自己的，反面观点就一笔带过，因果逻辑模糊，所以我还是站在持怀疑态度的一方。阅读这本书可以增强对人类的信心，减轻悲观主义，算是一碗科学鸡汤。
##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。
##Somewhat repetitive, but the quality of writing makes up for it. Each chapter is a great writing sample.
##Pinker 怒了
##卖弄词藻，晦涩难懂！