It’s difficult not to feel that these are dark days, what with the government rollback of environmental-protection legislation, immigrant children in what amount to internment camps, and women’s rights on the chopping block, to name a few examples. It’s enough to make you want to crawl in bed and pull the covers over your head. For Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist, linguist, author, and Harvard professor, the frightening state of country — and world — affairs is exactly why it is important for people to embrace the principles that were purported during the 18th century’s Enlightenment, which, using reason (i.e., scientific thinking/data) as its center point, spawned ideals such as liberty, tolerance, and constitutional government.
In his latest book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Pinker uses meticulous research and data to lay out the ways in which humans have progressed and why we will continue to do so. The book has received both praise and criticism — some reviewers finding it “heartening and important” (Publishers Weekly), while others feel Pinker shows a “casual dismissal of ethics” (Booklist) regarding some infamous studies, such as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. Whether you decide to agree or disagree with Pinker’s conclusions, Enlightenment Now offers up thought-provoking arguments surrounding humankind’s progress that make it a compelling and worthy read.
I recently spoke over the phone with Pinker, who shared how the book came about. The following is a truncated version of our conversation.