What's So Funny about Progress, Science, and Reason?

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Buy this book. Or borrow it. But then read it.

This is an interesting, informative, optimistic book, written in a clear way, as always. Steven Pinker is known for careful scholarship and reasoned pronouncements, and you will find that in the book, along with hope for a better future. That's a good deal, even in hardcover.

Pinker tells us the world is getting better in a lot of ways, and your first impulse will be to doubt his conclusions and look for examples that you are certain he's overlooked, evidence that he hasn't considered. You'll want to poke holes in his evidence. That's fine. Gives you something to do while you read. But he has anticipated you; every example you can think of to disprove him has its chapter with data. Probably a chart, too. Like a good scientist, he doesn't make a claim he can't support. He doesn't go beyond what the data proves. Every way that he might be misreading the data is discussed, with explanations for why that isn't the case. Try it and see.

Here are some of the highlights of the progress he's talking about, but it's not a complete list:

People are living longer, all over the world. Diseases are being eradicated. Poverty, especially extreme poverty, is being defeated. More people around the world have more of the sorts of rights Americans expect to have--work, drive, vote. More countries have fairer economic systems, and fairer governments. War is down. Accidental death is down. Crime and violence are down across the world. Courts and penal systems are getting fairer. Executions are down. People work less. Housework is getting easier. IQ's are going up.

In almost every way, we're getting better at being humans.

Global warming? Nuclear war? Still worries, of course, but he gives reason for hope. (And like everywhere else, he encourages continued effort--he doesn't support or propose "progress" as an inevitability. To do better, we need more of what got us this far.)

If any of that sounds unlikely, don't worry--he knows what you think. He's heard it everywhere, and if you find the right chapter, you'll see what data supports his position. Argue with the data. :)

The reason behind all of this improvement, according to Pinker, is science, based in humanism. We make the world a better place by using what we know to gradually lift us up higher, a bit at a time. He explains it better than that--it's a big book--but that's the gist. After the chapters about all the types of improvement, with all the data, (which is my favorite part of the book), he offers a long argument in favor of humanism, and against competing ideologies and philosophies. I found it persuasive.

If your brain is hungry for information, this is a good book for you. And if you want to think that the world is not too bad, after all, this is also the book for you. If you think fascism is great, or a theocracy might be all right, don't read the book. Everybody else--good stuff.

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