Enlightenment Now

Resumen del libro

Is modernity really failing? Or have we failed to appreciate progress and the ideals that make it possible?If you follow the headlines, the world in the 21st century appears to be sinking into chaos, hatred and irrationality. Yet, as Steven Pinker shows, if you follow the trendlines, you discover that our lives have become longer, healthier, safer and more prosperous - not just in the West, but worldwide. Such progress is no accident: it's the gift of a coherent value system that many of us embrace without even realizing it.

These are the values of the Enlightenment: of reason, science, humanism and progress. The challenges we face today are formidable. But the way to deal with them is not to sink into despair or try to lurch back to a mythical idyllic past; it's to treat them as problems we can solve, as we have solved other problems in the past.

This is the case for an Enlightenment newly recharged for the 21st century.

Biografía del autor

Steven Pinker (Montreal, 1954) es un prominente psicólogo experimental americano, científico cognitivo y un popular escritor, conocido por su defensa enérgica y de gran alcance de la psicología evolucionista y de la teoría computacional de la mente.<br> Steven Pinker es catedrático del Harvard College y del Johnstone Family en la Universidad de Harvard.<br> Realizó sus estudios en la Universidad McGill y en la Universidad de Harvard, donde obtuvo su doctorado. Es miembro de la Academia Americana de las Artes y las Ciencias, y de la Asociación Psicológica Americana.<br> Galardonado con varios premios y reconocimientos, es autor de varios libros, entre ellos, La tabla rasa, El mundo de las palabras, Los ángeles que llevamos dentro y En defensa de la Ilustración, todos publicados por Paidós.