Enlightenment, Now!
Let’s Just Wonder
Steven Pinker has a new book out. Its title is the same as my title above, except that I added punctuation to make it appear exciting. I’m not convinced that this tactic works.
I have a lot of time for Professor Pinker. We seem to share a lot of opinions, the difference being that he researches his reasoning and documents it in exhaustive detail, and I just, sorta, go with the gut (yes, I know what the gut produces. Not the point. Not my point, not this time). One of my favourite Pinker aphorisms is about how each of us is, or at least starts off, searching for “the best-looking, richest, smartest, funniest, kindest person who would settle for you.” It’s a lovely way to put it. But those twelve words are from a six-paragraph section of a 660-page book (How The Mind Works). You see? He does go on a bit.
I once attended a Pinker lecture. It took place in a fabulous old building — just looking inside was worth the price of entry — and the quality of sound and seating were both good. Nevertheless, I fell asleep. Afterwards he signed the copy of The Language Instinct that I’d just purchased, and later still I tried to read it. Unlike the previous tome, I didn’t get very far; and once I put it down I could not pick it up again*. When I say I have a lot of time for him, I don’t mean it literally.
So nowadays, I tend to read his reviews or interviews and nod approvingly. The latest bestseller is 550 pages, and includes a long discussion of what enlightenment is and what The Enlightenment was. An extract from an extract goes like this (editing and highlighting by me):
“Reason is non-negotiable… If there’s anything the Enlightenment thinkers had in common, it was an insistence that we energetically apply the standard of reason to understanding our world, and not fall back on generators of delusion like faith, dogma, revelation, authority, charisma, mysticism, divination, visions, gut feelings or the hermeneutic parsing of sacred texts.”
You can’t argue with that. But please, could we have it a little more succinct? Come on, Stevie!
Oh…
“When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer.”
Twelve words. That’ll do me.
* gag by Alan Coren, 1970s sometime. Don’t say I don’t credit my sources.