Shared social norms and ethics are the framework that allows reason to prevail.

Like the Renaissance, it ended in chaos and conflict, including the French revolutionary wars of 1792–99.īoth eras show that science and evidence-based thinking do not necessarily triumph over irrationality and ideology. Enlightenment advances were tied to empire building and the nascent Industrial Revolution, predicated not just on noble ideas and scientific curiosity, but also on slavery, genocide, exploitation and cultural triumphalism. Europe saw the rise of religious extremists - such as the demagogue Girolamo Savonarola, who ruled Florence in the 1490s - along with intolerance of diversity and science. During the Renaissance voyages of discovery, European sailors spread diseases that killed millions of indigenous Americans. Before that were extraordinarily innovative epochs in Asia and other regions, such as China’s Tang dynasty (ad 618–907) and the Islamic Golden Age (750–1260).Īnother issue we highlighted is that less salubrious aspects of change accompanied eras of rapid progress. As Chris Kutarna and I showed in Age of Discovery (Bloomsbury, 2017), the Renaissance was a period of even more dramatic progress in science and the humanities, sparked by luminaries such as the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and the humanist Erasmus (see P.

Many of the breakthroughs that Pinker attributes to the Enlightenment actually pre-date it. But using the era as a premise is problematic. The separation of church and state in some nations allowed new models of society to flourish. The Enlightenment undoubtedly saw major advances in constitutional government. That legacy, he asserts, is ripe for resurrection at a time of political upheaval, the rise of demagoguery, climate scepticism and ‘fake news’. But the book’s premise lies in the past: the Enlightenment, that period in the eighteenth century when, Pinker argues, reason, science, humanism and progress became the centre of intellectual endeavour in Europe and North America. In this new combined survey, analysis and manifesto, he convincingly demonstrates that when it comes to health and life expectancy, poverty reduction and income, education, human rights, peace and security, the global data provide solid grounds for optimism. Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now builds on his 2011 The Better Angels of Our Nature (Viking) in offering another engaging, compelling set of reasons to be cheerful.

Credit: Bridgeman ImagesĮnlightenment Now: The Case for Science, Reason, Humanism, and Progress Steven Pinker Viking: 2018. The Marseillaise (1870) by Gustave Doré: the French Revolution began with ideals of rationalism, but descended into chaos and conflict.

Steven pinker's enlightenment now