Book SummaryEnlightenment Now, by Steven Pinker

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Enlightenment Now

In Enlightenment Now, psychologist Steven Pinker argues that 17th- and 18th-century Enlightenment values and modernization have contributed to gradually improving the world on “every single measure of human well-being.” He says people tend to think the world is getting worse because of psychological biases and errors in perception, but the data supports the conclusion that life for humans everywhere is getting better.

Pinker explains why our perceptions of a worsening world are wrong and provides statistics to challenge those misconceptions. Through presenting data on such factors as health, wealth, equality, human rights, happiness, peace, and freedom (among other measures), he explains how The Enlightenment’s key ideas of reason, science, and humanism are the driving forces behind progress in all these areas.

Pinker is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. This book,...

Enlightenment Now Summary What Are Enlightenment Values?

The Age of Enlightenment refers to a historical period in the 17th and 18th centuries when European intellectuals and philosophers were concerned with re-thinking social values and moving toward a more “progressive” vision for humanity. This included thinking about the most rational ways to go about organizing and governing society to maximize human well-being, including discussions of freedom, equality, and empirical truth. Some of the best-known thinkers associated with this movement are René Descartes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, and David Hume. Enlightenment philosophy led to revolutionizing many aspects of European society and ultimately had global influence.

The Origin of Enlightenment Values

David Graeber and David Wengrow, in The Dawn of Everything, argue that much Enlightenment thinking originated in conversations between European colonists in America and the indigenous people there. In these conversations, Native Americans raised scathing critiques of European social customs and values, particularly criticizing monarchical rule, social hierarchies, emphasis on...

Enlightenment Now Summary What Is Progress?

While a definition of “progress” as using reason, science, and humanism to improve conditions for humanity seems straightforward, the word “improve” implies a value judgment and is therefore subjective. Who decides what’s better? Pinker believes we can agree on some universals in this area—there are some things we can all agree are better than other things. For example, he says: Health is better than sickness, peace is better than violence, and freedom is better than enslavement.

While some of these dichotomies may seem obvious, there are some other measures of “improvement” that Pinker strives to defend, as they are not as obviously universally “better.” For example, the claim that wealth is inherently better than poverty can be challenged by pointing out that a person who is poor but happy is better off than a person who is wealthy but miserable. Or, one could argue that wealthier, more technologically advanced human societies are not worth the sacrifice of an environmental crisis.

(Shortform note: Scholars have argued that the [focus on continuous economic growth is at the root of the environmental...

Enlightenment Now Summary Human Well-Being

The first area of progress we’ll look at is that of human well-being. In this category, we’ll consider statistics presented by Pinker on overall lifestyle, health, safety, human rights, and happiness. According to Pinker, we can track how well humans are doing as a whole by looking at measures in these areas. And when we do, we see improvements on every measure.

Lifestyle

Overall, Pinker argues that people have a much better work/leisure balance than they did in the past. He says that modernization has made this possible through the invention of electricity and time-saving appliances. Modern technology means we have to work fewer hours to support our households, and we spend far fewer hours on basic household chores, allowing us more free time to pursue pleasurable activities, like travel. Some of the statistics presented to support Pinker’s argument are:

• Work hours: Between 1870-2000, in Western Europe and the US, weekly work hours decreased from between 60-70 hours/week to around 40 hours/week.
• Retirement: In the US, the percentage of people over 65 who were still working decreased from almost 80% in 1880 to around 20% in 2000. *...

Enlightenment Now Summary Societal Well-Being

Next, we’ll turn to Pinker’s data on how Enlightenment values have affected humans on a larger scale—at the societal level. In this section, we’ll discuss research on wealth distribution and inequality, peacefulness, democracy, and technological advancement.

Wealth and Inequality

On the topic of wealth distribution, Pinker says that it’s a mistake to think that inequality in itself is a bad thing. He argues that **inequality in distribution of wealth isn’t a problem in itself, because it doesn’t matter how much money rich people have, as long as everyone has enough. *For example, if the richest people in society triple their wealth and the poorest people double their wealth, that may make the inequality between richest and poorest greater, but it still means everyone is better off. So the problem, he says, is poverty*, not inequality. A more equal society isn’t necessarily good either, he argues, because the things that tend to level societies are tyrannical leaders, war, disease, and state collapse.

Global Distribution of Wealth

Pinker says the idea that “as the rich get richer, the poor get poorer” is actually false. The data shows that all around the...

Enlightenment Now Summary Environmental Well-Being

Pinker’s final measure of Enlightenment progress is perhaps the one that poses the greatest challenge and is the basis for the strongest pushback against his argument that things are getting better: the environment.

Pinker acknowledges that arguments about environmental destruction are among the most common criticisms he gets. It can be argued, for example, that the good of modernization does not outweigh the harm it does to the environment. So he asks whether progress and modernity are worth the environmental cost. He argues that they are—because, he says, environmental problems are solvable if we keep on the “enlightened” trajectory of applying reason and science to them. He calls this position “ecomodernism.”

An ecomodernist position, Pinker argues, begins with the acknowledgment that some amount of pollution is an inevitable result of the human lifestyle. Acknowledging that, we then have to weigh the positive effects industrialization has had on human lives against the negative effects it’s had on the natural world. (Shortform note: Industrial pollution has had a [negative impact on human...

Shortform Exercise: Are You Convinced Life Is Getting Better?

After looking at the data, do you think the world is getting better or worse, overall?

Did any of the statistics presented challenge or even change your ideas about the state of the world? In which areas were you most surprised? (For example, safety, happiness, peace, technology, and so on.)