Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

1. What Is Enlightenment? Kant 1784/1991.

2. The quotations are blended and condensed from translations by H. B. Nisbet, Kant 1784/1991, and by Mary C. Smith, http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html.

3. The Beginning of Infinity: Deutsch 2011, pp. 221–22.

4. The Enlightenment: Goldstein 2006; Gottlieb 2016; Grayling 2007; Hunt 2007; Israel 2001; Makari 2015; Montgomery & Chirot 2015; Pagden 2013; Porter 2000.

5. The nonnegotiability of reason: Nagel 1997; see also chapter 21.

6. Most Enlightenment thinkers were non-theists: Pagden 2013, p. 98.

7. Wootton 2015, pp. 6–7.

8. Scott 2010, pp. 20–21.

9. Enlightenment thinkers as scientists of human nature: Kitcher 1990; Macnamara 1999; Makari 2015; Montgomery & Chirot 2015; Pagden 2013; Stevenson & Haberman 1998.

10. Expanding circle of sympathy: Nagel 1970; Pinker 2011; Shermer 2015; Singer 1981/2010.

11. Cosmopolitanism: Appiah 2006; Pagden 2013; Pinker 2011.

12. Humanitarian Revolution: Hunt 2007; Pinker 2011.

13. Progress as a mystical force: Berlin 1979; Nisbet 1980/2009.

14. Authoritarian High Modernism: Scott 1998.

15. Authoritarian High Modernism and blank-slate psychology: Pinker 2002/2016, pp. 170–71, 409–11.

16. Quotes from Le Corbusier, from Scott 1998, pp. 114–15.

17. Rethinking punishment: Hunt 2007.

18. Wealth creation: Montgomery & Chirot 2015; Ridley 2010; Smith 1776/2009.

19. Gentle commerce: Mueller 1999, 2010b; Pagden 2013; Pinker 2011; Schneider & Gleditsch 2010.

20. Perpetual Peace: Kant 1795/1983. Modern interpretation: Russett & Oneal 2001.

CHAPTER 2: ENTRO, EVO, INFO

1. Second Law of Thermodynamics: Atkins 2007; Carroll 2016; Hidalgo 2015; Lane 2015.

2. Eddington 1928/2015.

3. The two cultures and the Second Law: Snow 1959/1998, pp. 14–15.

4. Second Law of Thermo = First law of psycho: Tooby, Cosmides, & Barrett 2003.

5. Self-organization: England 2015; Gell-Mann 1994; Hidalgo 2015; Lane 2015.

6. Evolution versus entropy: Dawkins 1983, 1986; Lane 2015; Tooby, Cosmides, & Barrett 2003.

7. Spinoza: Goldstein 2006.

8. Information: Adriaans 2013; Dretske 1981; Gleick 2011; Hidalgo 2015.

9. Information is a decrease in entropy, not entropy itself: https://schneider.ncifcrf.gov/information.is.not.uncertainty.html.

10. Transmitted information as knowledge: Adriaans 2013; Dretske 1981; Fodor 1987, 1994.

11. “The universe is made of matter, energy, and information”: Hidalgo 2015, p. ix; see also Lloyd 2006.

12. Neural computation: Anderson 2007; Pinker 1997/2009, chap. 2.

13. Knowledge, information, and inferential roles: Block 1986; Fodor 1987, 1994.

14. The cognitive niche: Marlowe 2010; Pinker 1997/2009; Tooby & DeVore 1987; Wrangham 2009.

15. Language: Pinker 1994/2007.

16. Hadza menu: Marlowe 2010.

17. Axial Age: Goldstein 2013.

18. Explaining the Axial Age: Baumard et al. 2015.

19. From The Threepenny Opera, act II, scene 1.

20. Clockwork universe: Carroll 2016; Wootton 2015.

21. Innate illiteracy and innumeracy: Carey 2009; Wolf 2007.

22. Magical thinking, essences, word magic: Oesterdiekhoff 2015; Pinker 1997/2009, chaps. 5 and 6; Pinker 2007a, chap. 7.

23. Bugs in statistical reasoning: Ariely 2010; Gigerenzer 2015; Kahneman 2011; Pinker 1997/2009, chap. 5; Sutherland 1992.

24. Intuitive lawyers and politicians: Kahan, Jenkins-Smith, & Braman 2011; Kahan, Peters, et al. 2013; Kahan, Wittlin, et al. 2011; Mercier & Sperber 2011; Tetlock 2002.

25. Overconfidence: Johnson 2004. Overconfidence in understanding: Sloman & Fernbach 2017.

26. Bugs in the moral sense: Greene 2013; Haidt 2012; Pinker 2008a.

27. Morality as a condemnation device: DeScioli & Kurzban 2009; DeScioli 2016.

28. Virtuous violence: Fiske & Rai 2015; Pinker 2011, chaps. 8 and 9.

29. Transcending cognitive limitations through abstraction and combination: Pinker 2007a, 2010.

30. Letter to Isaac McPherson, Writings 13:333–35, quoted in Ridley 2010, p. 247.

31. Collective rationality: Haidt 2012; Mercier & Sperber 2011.

32. Cooperation and the interchangeability of perspectives: Nagel 1970; Pinker 2011; Singer 1981/2010.

CHAPTER 3: COUNTER-ENLIGHTENMENTS

1. Declining trust in institutions: Twenge, Campbell, & Carter 2014. Mueller 1999, pp. 167–68, points out that the 1960s were a high-water mark for trust in institutions, unsurpassed before or after. Declining trust in science among conservatives: Gauchat 2012. Populism: Inglehart & Norris 2016; J. Müller 2016; Norris & Inglehart 2016; see also chapters 20 and 23.

2. Non-Western enlightenments: Conrad 2012; Kurlansky 2006; Pelham 2016; Sen 2005; Sikkink 2017.

3. Counter-Enlightenments: Berlin 1979; Garrard 2006; Herman 1997; Howard 2001; McMahon 2001; Sternhell 2010; Wolin 2004; see also chapter 23.

4. Inscription in John Singer Sargent’s 1922 painting Death and Victory, Widener Library, Harvard University.

5. Irreligious defenders of religion: Coyne 2015; see also chapter 23.