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

[quantropy]

Why I looked at this book

This book is being strongly recommended by Bill Gates, so I thought I ought to read it. But I also think that some of the anti-enlightenment rhetoric we hear is a prime example of muddled thinking, often along the lines of 'Enlightenment values are all very well, but someone didn't live up to them, so they don't count'. I'm hoping this book will help to show what we can do to counter such muddled thinking, as well as showing whether there have been any serious arguments against enlightenment values.

[quantropy]

First Impressions

The first 3 chapters are available as a Kindle sample (in the UK at least) Chapter 1 is about the Enlightenment, but made it clear that progressisn't automatic - we must beware of going backwards. The second chapter introduces the reader to entropy, evolution and information, and argues why they play a part in Enlightenment values. I have my doubts about this - the discovery of such things is of course an important result of Enlightenment values, but to base arguments about society on them seems excessively reductionist. In chapter 3 Pinker comes out fighting against Counter-Enlightenment ideas, but I can't help feeling that he strays too far towards dogma himself, rather than encouraging dialogue. I'll have to see how this pans out in the rest of the book.

As well as the usual samples, you can download a free chapter at http://b-gat.es/2GsBQIQ. This chapter Progressophobia</i> looks at responses to Pinker's earlier book Better Angels of our Nature. It seems that people don't so much present counterarguments as present a psychological inability to accept the many ways in which the world is improving. I'm interested to see how much the rest of the book continues the debate started with Better Angels and how much is an exploration of Enlightenment values.