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Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
Price $35.00Hardcover
Special Order
Steven Pinker
presents
Enlightenment Now:
The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
in conversation with CHRISTOPHER LYDON
This event includes a book signing
There will be a standby line at the door
DateFeb
28
Wednesday
February 28, 2018 7:00 PM ET (Doors at 6:00) |
LocationFirst Parish Church
1446 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138 |
Tickets
SOLD OUT. View our Sold Out Event FAQ.
|
Harvard Book Store, WBUR, and Mass Humanities welcome acclaimed linguist, cognitive scientist, and award-winning author STEVEN PINKER for a discussion of his latest book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. He will be joined in conversation by Radio Open Source's CHRISTOPHER LYDON.
About Enlightenment Now
The follow-up to Pinker's groundbreaking The Better Angels of Our Nature presents the big picture of human progress: 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 science.
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.
Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature—tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking—which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation.
With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.
Praise
“If I could give each of you a graduation present, it would be this—the most inspiring book I’ve ever read.” —Bill Gates
UPDATE: Tickets for this event are sold out. Please note, we are often able to accommodate additional attendees from a standby line for sold out events. View our Sold Out Event FAQ for more information.
Tickets are non-refundable and non-returnable.
Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes
As you exit the station, cross Mass. Ave. and look for the newsstand called Crimson Corner. Turn right and proceed north along Mass. Ave. going toward the Cambridge Common. You will pass the Harvard Coop, Bank of America, and CVS. The First Parish Church is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Church St. Please enter through the front door of the church.
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90.9 WBUR-FM is Boston’s NPR news station and the home of nationally syndicated programs, providing listeners with thorough coverage of local, national and international news from NPR, Public Radio International and the BBC, in addition to its own locally produced content. Learn more at wbur.org/.
Mass Humanities creates opportunities for the people of Massachusetts to transform their lives and build a more equitable Commonwealth through the humanities. Learn more at masshumanities.org.
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