The challenges we face today are formidable, including inequality, climate change, Artificial Intelligence and nuclear weapons.īut 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. These are the values of the Enlightenment: of reason, science, humanism and progress. Such progress is no accident: it's the gift of a coherent and inspiring value system that many of us embrace without even realizing it. If you follow the trendlines rather than the headlines, you discover that our lives have become longer, healthier, safer, happier, more peaceful, more stimulating and more prosperous - not just in the West, but worldwide. Yet Steven Pinker shows that this is an illusion - a symptom of historical amnesia and statistical fallacies. 'My new favourite book of all time' Bill GatesTOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERIs 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.
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