Review of Enlightenment Now

Steven Pinker

Looking for the book?
We have the summary! Get the key insights in just 10 minutes.

Rating

The rating – what does it mean?

At getAbstract, we summarize books* that help people understand the world and make it better. Whatever we select for our library has to excel in one or the other of these two core criteria:

Enlightening – You’ll learn things that will inform and improve your decisions.

Helpful – You’ll take-away practical advice that will help you get better at what you do.

We rate each piece of content on a scale of 1–10 with regard to these two core criteria. Our rating helps you sort the titles on your reading list from adequate (5) to brilliant (10). Books we rate below 5 won’t be summarized. Here's what the ratings mean:

5 –Solid. A helpful and/or enlightening book, inspite of its obvious shortcomings. For instance, it may be offer decent advice in some areas but be repetitive or unremarkable in others. 6 – Notable. A helpful and/or enlightening book that stands out by at least one aspect, e.g. is particularly well structured. 7 – Good. A helpful and/or enlightening book that combines two or more noteworthy strengths, e.g. contains uncommonly novel ideas and presents them in an engaging manner. 8 – Very good. A helpful and/or enlightening book that has a substantial number of outstanding qualities without excelling across the board, e.g. presents the latest findings in a topical field and is written by a renowned expert but lacks a bit in style. 9 – Superb. A helpful and/or enlightening book that is extremely well rounded, has many strengths and no shortcomings worth mentioning. 10 – Brilliant. A helpful and/or enlightening book that, in addition to meeting the highest standards in all pertinent aspects, stands out even among the best. Often an instant classic and must-read for everyone. While the rating tells you how good a book is according to our two core criteria, it says nothing about its particular defining features. Therefore, we use a set of 20 qualities to characterize each book by its strengths:

Applicable – You’ll get advice that can be directly applied in the workplace or in everyday situations.
Analytical – You’ll understand the inner workings of the subject matter.
Background – You’ll get contextual knowledge as a frame for informed action or analysis.
Bold – You’ll find arguments that may break with predominant views.
Comprehensive – You’ll find every aspect of the subject matter covered.
Concrete Examples – You’ll get practical advice illustrated with examples of real-world applications or anecdotes.
Eloquent – You’ll enjoy a masterfully written or presented text.
Engaging – You’ll read or watch this all the way through the end.
Eye opening – You’ll be offered highly surprising insights.
For beginners – You’ll find this to be a good primer if you’re a learner with little or no prior experience/knowledge.
For experts – You’ll get the higher-level knowledge/instructions you need as an expert.
Hot Topic – You’ll find yourself in the middle of a highly debated issue.
Innovative – You can expect some truly fresh ideas and insights on brand-new products or trends.
Insider’s take – You’ll have the privilege of learning from someone who knows her or his topic inside-out.
Inspiring – You’ll want to put into practice what you’ve read immediately.
Overview – You’ll get a broad treatment of the subject matter, mentioning all its major aspects.
Scientific – You’ll get facts and figures grounded in scientific research.
Visionary – You’ll get a glimpse of the future and what it might mean for you.
Well structured – You’ll find this to be particularly well organized to support its reception or application.

*getAbstract is summarizing much more than books. We look at every kind of content that may matter to our audience: books, but also articles, reports, videos and podcasts. What we say here about books applies to all formats we cover.

Qualities

Comprehensive
Analytical
Eye Opening

Review

Harvard University psychology professor Steven Pinker argues that for more than 200 years, the Age of Enlightenment has been the wellspring of steady human progress, especially in quality of life. The Enlightenment – which, he explains, is “placed in the last two-thirds of the 18th century, though it flows out of the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Reason in the 17th century” – follows a set of primary principles and ideals: “reason, science, humanism and progress.”

The foremost Enlightenment principle is the primacy of reason as an avenue for understanding the world and human life and for rejecting religious dogma and faith. Science sprang from the Enlightenment’s devotion to reason and gives people a way to understand the processes of the natural world and of human nature. Humanism depends on reason and science. It concerns ethical life and how people organize themselves into societies. Humanism grounds ethics in reason, rather than in religion, and it prioritizes individuals over their community, nation or race. The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are products of the Enlightenment. In Pinker’s analysis, Enlightenment ideals have fueled progress in every area from human health and human rights to efforts to combat poverty, crime and war.

The principal weakness of Pinker’s opus, other than its density, is his palpable impatience with – and quick dismissal of – many balanced, reasoned critiques of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment spread crucial ideals, but it also produced some of the worst depredations of capitalism and mechanized warfare. Still, Pinker argues his thesis with vast data and startling graphs. His optimism and enthusiasm are infectious. getAbstract recommends this monumental tribute to human progress to anyone who wants to remain hopeful about the future.

About the Author

Steven Pinker, PhD, is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. His other books include The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Blank Slate and The Better Angels of Our Nature. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist whose won many awards for research, teaching and writing, he was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World Today and Foreign Policy’s 100 Global Thinkers.

Pinker offers the following lessons:

1. “Entropy” is important in grasping the human condition.

The phenomenon of entropy is central to the human condition. According to the second law of thermodynamics, entropy describes how the elements in a “closed system” gradually disperse over time and become less useful. When a fire dims, for example, and its heat dissipates, it can no longer boil water or cook food. This law is important in understanding human life. Human biological structures, like that of any organism, allow people to absorb the energy they need to remain alive and to survive and counteract entropy. How could such an improbable being come into existence? Religious thinkers assert that only God could design such a complex creature. To the extent that Enlightenment thinkers were religious, some were deists, theists or pantheists. And some were atheists and not religious at all. Deists believed that only a deity could explain the origins of complex organisms like human beings, and that “God set the universe in motion and then stepped back, allowing it to unfold according to the laws of nature.”

Read on