Start studying Chapter 22: Enlightenment and Revolution 1550-1789. Boost your life and career with the best book summaries. File Type PDF Chapter The Enlightenment 16 And The Age Of Reason ... 44-4 CHAPTER 16 Summary of Paragraph 1 Christopher Columbus thought he could sail west to reach Asia. A worthy follow-up to The Better Angels of Our Nature, Enlightenment Now is a research-based, graph-filled, quotes-adorned apology of Enlightenment values (i.e., reason, science, and humanism), embellished with a firm belief that, unless we stray off this agenda-less path, we are bound to create a better world for all humans. And there are so many reasons to live.”. A worthy follow-up to The Better Angels of Our Nature, Enlightenment Now is a research-based, graph-filled, quotes-adorned apology of Enlightenment values (i.e., reason, science, and humanism), embellished with a firm belief that, unless we stray off this agenda-less path, we are bound to create a better world for all humans. He says that that now his worst fears have come true: "Rebecca has won" (19.210). Well, first of all, because, whether we wanted or not, we are all necessary victims of entropy – the Second Law of Thermodynamic. Not that it’s new information, but conspirators of future dystopias and counter-Enlighteners seem to enjoy ignoring this: people are nowadays living longer than ever: Before the Enlightenment, as you can see from Pinker’s graph, an average person couldn’t expect to live more than 35 years – even in Europe. A modern optimist believes that the world can be much, much better than it is today. Because, if you are factful, you’d already know that things are better than you think. Of course, these are Barack Obama’s (and not Pinker’s) words, but either way, they make Pinker’s point clear: we’ve progressed a lot, and people should just stop being progressophobs (theirs is Chapter 4) and rejoice instead. Such questioning led to the development of the scientific method still in use today. Here is a concise summary of what Pinker did not report about the Palestinian Genocide that like all genocides grossly violates the ideals of the Enlightenment. The second half of Chapter Nineteen contrasts the emergence of a cosmopolitan “high culture” with the activities. Here he tries to defend science against the attacks of all those Luddites who blame everything from eugenics through racism to Nazism on the ideals of the Enlightenment. The educated didn’t vote for you, just as they didn’t vote for Brexit. We’d like to invite you to download our free 12 min app for more amazing summaries and audiobooks. And we firmly believe that you’ll lose nothing getting familiar with both Pinker’s and Taleb’s arguments. Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one. Think of it this way – as bad as it is, democratic nations almost never experience bloody revolutions because you can always vote for another Party four years later. If you read Pinker’s quote just above this section carefully, you already know that the ideals and values of the Enlightened his book is interested in are reason, science, and humanism. When properly appreciated… the ideals of the Enlightenment are in fact stirring, inspiring, noble—a reason to live.”. – we owe this to many creative and smart members of our species who discovered various real sources of diseases and finally substituted prayers, sacrifices, and homeopathy with actual cures, thus saving billions of lives. You can trace them back to the second half of the 18th century when, according to Immanuel Kant’s 1784 essay “What is Enlightenment,” humankind emerged from “its self-incurred immaturity,” its “lazy and cowardly” submission to the “dogmas and formulas” of religious or political authority. «History is written not so much by the victors as by the affluent, the sliver of humanity with … We have to note that, in our view, this chapter is by far the least correct in Pinker’s book. Maxim tells her that the body they found in Rebecca's boat is in fact Rebecca's body. The first one is by Baruch Spinoza, one of the original Enlighteners, who probably needs no further introduction: “Those who are governed by reason desire nothing for themselves which they do not also desire for the rest of humankind.”, The second one is by David Deutsch, a physicist, one of Spinoza’s modern descendants, a guy whose seminal TED Talk on the nature of explanations we encourage you to see right now: “Everything that is not forbidden by laws of nature is achievable, given the right knowledge.”. The "platform" (施法壇) refers to the podium on which a Buddhist teacher speaks. Back to terrorism, unhappiness and other existential threats. It seems plainly wrong, at a day and age when we hear about violent deaths on a daily basis, to argue that the Earth is now safer and more peaceful than ever. Your education and knowledge make you wonder about things your predecessors never did. And you can get this feeling already from the two epigraphs of the book. And we know that it is all but a fact that 99% of the world’s wealth is owned by 1% of the people. University of California, Santa Barbara • HIST 4C, Northern Virginia Community College • HIS 102. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. At academies and salons, commoners and nobility, writers, thinkers, prominent women, and men of business mingled to form a broader social elite, united in adherence to the ideas and, principles of the Enlightenment. – then here’s another one: wouldn’t you want to read Bill Gates’ favorite book of all time? Each chapter is an attempt to savor one idea that has been discovered by several of the world's civilizations - to question it in light of what we now know from scientific research, and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives and illuminate the causes of human flourishing. Choose from 500 different sets of enlightenment chapter 19 flashcards on Quizlet. The World Is Getting Better3. The world is much wealthier, healthier, and safer. And, to cut the long story short, you shouldn’t be either – and for a very simple reason: the graphs above. Pinker acknowledges that the impact of the highly unpredictable should not be waved away, but, still, he demonstrates that, these spikes of bad things aside (colonialism, World Wars, Chernobyl, etc. In the first part of his book, Pinker’s outlines the ideas and values of the Enlightenment in three chapters. Professor Pangloss, as it happens, is what we would now call a pes - simist. People see violence as moral, not immoral: across the world and throughout history, more people have been murdered to mete out justice than to satisfy greed. If you are like most people, you probably take them for granted nowadays, which, in a way, doesn’t make you that better than the counter-enlighteners. CHAPTER NINETEEN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT CHAPTER SUMMARY Chapter Nineteen describes the “Age of Enlightenment” as a time when European intellectuals popularized the great scientific and philosophical achievements of the seventeenth century, but also self-consciously redirected attention toward the study of human nature, culture, and society. Some may say that democracy is overrated, but it is not: it is the best idea the enlightened minds of the 18th century devised as a way to fight against autocracy and leadership breakdowns. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature - tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking - which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Read 2,504 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. And all those right-wing nationalists or leftist rebels-without-causes would do much better for their own wellbeing (and the wellbeing of everybody) if they just listen to what reason and the data has to say. Enlightenment Now book. During the last decade, however, he has reached a much wider audience through three popular science books (The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and this one, Enlightenment Now) in which he argues that our future is not that bleak and that, far from being a failed species, humans are actually awesome. Speaking of a domain where humanity can fail its host, the Earth – here is how things stand with regard to our relation to the environment: Strangely enough, capitalist progress hasn’t resulted in an environmental horror, nor the data suggest that more care for the environment should hinder it. 1. Education. On Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker - Chapter 4: Life. There can be no question of which was the greatest era for culture; the answer has to be today until it is superseded by tomorrow. But what about the poor and the hungry, you ask? A Lesson Before Dying: Chapter 19 Summary & Analysis Next. Also, the world is a far safer place to live in today than fifty and hundred years ago – in just about any category: work-related deaths, plane crashes, vehicle accidents, drownings, fires – and even falls! ‘The Enlightenment’ describes the varying definitions of Enlightenment, how it has been reconstructed as a historical phenomenon, and explains why it has been so contested. Of course, the more democratic a country is, the more equal the rights of its citizens. True, they are still there, but bear this in mind: with the exception of Vatican, women can vote everywhere nowadays, something which was unimaginable just a hundred years ago even in the most developed societies! The Enlightenment Believed in Reason, Science, and Humanism2. “These diverging curves,” writes Pinker commenting the graph above, “refute both the orthodox Green claim that only degrowth can curb pollution and the orthodox right-wing claim that environmental protection must sabotage economic growth and people’s standard of living.”. François-Marie Arouet was born in 1694 to an elite family well placed in the French royal bureaucracy. It’s merely an introduction to his discussion, but, honestly, we firmly believe that it is one of the most quotable parts of an otherwise highly quotable and enlightening book. --Bill Gates If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and … Clashing Twentieth-Century Global Forces (2008), like Pinker’s Enlightenment Now, addresses the question of how much progress has been made in modern times. As they didn ’ t vote for you, just as they didn ’ t for...: Enlightenment and Revolution 1550-1789 project swims against currents of human nature—tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization magical. Is written not so much dread and anxiety exactly because you ’ ll lose nothing getting familiar with Pinker..., to equal rights and education, and she suffers a great deal and anxiety because! 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