Steven Pinker’s case for optimism
“Enlightenment Now” explains why the doom-mongers are wrong
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress. By Steven Pinker. Viking; 576 pages; $35. Allen Lane; £25.
TO ANYONE who reads a newspaper, this can seem a miserable world. Syria is still at war. Another lunatic has gone on a gun rampage in an American school. The tone of political debate can rarely have been as crass and poisonous as it is today.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline "A future perfect"
From the February 24th 2018 edition
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