In this book Enlightenment Now, cognitive scientist Steven Pinker assesses the human condition in the third millennium and 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 graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness Continue reading Enlightenment Now: the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker (2019)
The Enlightenment, known as the “Age of Reason,” was a profound intellectual exploration in the 17th and 18th centuries. It challenged traditional authority by advocating reason, freedom, and secular governance. This shift in thought laid the groundwork for modern political and social structures, emphasizing liberty, progress, and tolerance. Continue reading The Enlightenment The Age of Reason
The Great Conversation links thinkers, traditions, and questions across thousands of years. Viewing history as separate episodes hides the deeper reality that it is the ongoing conversation of humankind, a dialogue that began around early campfires. Seeing it this way shows that each of us can contribute to this continuing exchange. Continue reading The Great Conversation The evolving dialogue of ideas over millennia
We have an anthropocentric tendency to see ourselves separate from the rest of the universe—as if we are somehow above or distinct from the natural world. Yet, when we examine things closely, we find that we are an intimate part of the universe’s fabric. Continue reading We Are Stardust We are literally part of the universe, not separate from it
