Pinker, S. (2019). A Linguist’s Guide to Quid Pro Quo. The New York Times.
Publications
2019
Pinker, S. (2019). Tech Prophecy and the Underappreciated Causal Power of Ideas. In Possible Minds: 25 Ways of Looking at AI. John Brockman.
Mehr, S., Singh, M., Knox, D., Kettler, D. M., Pickens-Jones, D., Atwood, S., Lucas, C., Jacoby, N., Egner, A. A., Hopkins, E. J., Howard, R. M., Hartshorne, J. K., Jennings, M. , V, Simson, J., Bainbridge, C. M., Pinker, S., O\textquoterightDonnell, T. J., Krasnow, M., & . (2019). Universality and diversity in human song. Science, 366(6468).
Pinker, S. (2019). One thing to change: Anecdotes aren’t data. The Harvard Gazette, June 21.
Pinker, S. (2019). Correct For the Media’s Negativity Bias. Politico, Sept. 20.
2018
Pinker, S. (2018). Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. Viking.
"My new favorite book of all time." —Bill Gates
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 75 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, Pinker makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.
Enlightenment Wars: Some Reflections on ‘Enlightenment Now,’ One Year Later
The Fake News Campaign Against Steven Pinker and Enlightenment Now
Steven Pinker's Counter-Counter-Enlightenment
Adaptations and Essays
New York Times Notable Books of 2018
Reply to a 2019 article in Salon by P. Torres
Reply to a 2019 article in The Guardian by J. Hickel
Letter to the New York Times Book Review in reply to Timothy Snyder
REVIEWS:
Full Reviews
Review Extracts
Interviews & Articles
AVAILABLE AT:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound
Books-a-Million
iBooks
See also:
Books
Pinker, S. (2018). The Bright Side. Time Magazine.
Pinker, S. (2018). The Enlightenment Is Working. The Wall Street Journal.
Pinker, S. (2018). ‘Reason is non-negotiable’: Steven Pinker on the Enlightenment. The Guardian: The Observer.
Pinker, S. (2018). The Intellectual War on Science: It’s wreaking havoc in universities and jeopardizing the progress of research. The Chronicle of Higher Education.