Is 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 twenty-first century appears to be sinking into chaos, hatred and
irrationality. Yet, Steven Pinker shows, if you follow the trendlines
rather than the headlines, you discover that our lives have become longer,
healthier, safer, happier and more prosperous - not just in the West, but
worldwide. 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.
These are the values of the Enlightenment : reason, science, humanism and
progress. In making the case for an Enlightenment newly recharged for the
twenty-first century, Pinker shows how we can use our faculties of reason
and sympathy to solve the problems that inevitably come with being products
of evolution in an indifferent universe. We will never have a perfect
world, but - defying the chorus of fatalism and reaction - we can continue
to make it a better one.