Enlightenment Now - by Steven Pinker

This book was a lot of fun to read. It helped confirm my convictions around science and rational optimism.

Science’s mission towards representation of the natural world pushes out any reliance on supernatural beliefs for good explanations.

The Enlightenment, as a consequence of science’s philosophy, set the bases for human progress in a way no other form of collective thought had done before.

What’s the Enlightenment’s biggest gifts? The promotion of individualism and liberty of thought, which allow ideas to mature in groups. Large-scale problems are solved by rational ideas that spring up from these, not from those that tap into the emotional, like nationalism and tribalism. We take such liberties for granted and rarely acknowledge the historical efforts that have provided them.

This book put words to notions I have around factless, rhetoric-fueled ideologies, organizations and rituals. It’s mind-blowing how much information is collated, referenced and structured into flowy, fact-based explanations around the multiple subjects it touches.