The rise and fall of progress

摘要

STEVEN PINKER has been called one of the most influential thinkers of our age. At the end of January, the professor of psychology at Harvard University was mingling with world leaders at the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Not surprisingly, his latest book Enlightenment Now is a rebuke to overly partisan critics of Western liberal democracy. It is time, he says, to recognise the widespread improvements in health, living standards and welfare that those liberal principles help create. Our risks may include global warming and nuclear war, but rational, evidence-based approaches will prove successful at reducing them.