Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Post 38.06/01/2018continued . . .
Enlightenment Now again!
Book Review and Commentary
In this sequel to The Better Angels of Our Nature, Steven Pinker continues his quest to change the common mis-perception that the modern world is on a slippery slope toward some kind of religious, political or environmental apocalypse. Contrary to conventional wisdom, he gives reams of hard evidence to show that the social & moral state of the world has been improving since the Enlightenment era of the 17th & 18th centuries. Most Western religions are doctrinally pessimistic about the prospects for humanity, apart from divine inter-vention. Even secular historians have warned of the end of Western Civilization1. And for many years now, polls have shown that many American citizens, regardless of religion, also feel that the U.S., once a “shining city on a hill”, is going down-hill.
Nevertheless, Pinker is optimistic about human flourishing, fostering, enhancing, and progressing, as we overcome inherent and environmental limitations with grit & reason. But his fact-based confidence in a brighter future is not like Donald Trump's cock-sure promise to make America great again, by rolling back the clock to the 1950's, when women & blacks knew their proper place, and the US was militarily & economically dominant over the rest of the “losers” of the world. Instead Pinker's rational Enlightenment principles are classically liberal & practically progressive, in contrast to the neo-conservative & static or regressive stance of much modern religion & politics.
Pinker probably began this work as a response to anti-rational academic Postmodernism, but shortly before publication, it became a passionate reaction to wacky seat-of-the-pants political Trumpism. As indicated by the subtitle, the Enlighten-ment ideals he champions are 1. Reason, which distinguishes human nature from lower animals; 2. Science, with its insistence on empirical evidence and skeptical verification; 3. Humanism, as a pragmatic substitute for the other-worldly stance of most religions; and 4. Progress, toward some Utopian future, not by divine intervention, but by the ingenuity & sweat of humans cooperating with each other to offset entropy with innovation.
In answer to the question, “what is Enlightenment”, he quotes philosopher Immanuel Kant that “it consists of “humankind's emergence from its self-incurred immaturity, its “lazy and cowardly” submission to the “dogmas and formulas” of religious or political authority.” Although most of our routine thinking is subconscious Intuition, he insists that conscious Reason is necessary to rise above the “generators of delusion like faith, dogma, revelation, authority, charisma, mysticism, visions, gut feelings, or the hermeneutic parsing of sacred texts.” Since my own Enformationism worldview resulted from an ongoing attempt to find a way out of those same irrational dead-ends, I hereby declare Enlightenment Now to be the official bible of the BothAnd Blog. But, in keeping with Pinker's own principles, I can review his scriptures critically, and with an open mind.
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Enlightenment Now The Case For Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
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