Enlightenment Now

biological function of, 267–8

  changes across age, period, and cohort, 272–4, 275

  cohorts and, 273–4

  distinguished from objective well-being, freedom, and meaningfulness, 264–8

  evaluative/cognitive aspect, 266

  and excitement about life, 288, 288

  experiential/emotional aspect, 266

  freedom in relation to, 265–6, 271

  health and, 271

  infinite increase of, as impossible, 268

  objective measurement of, 266

  Optimism Gap and, 268

  “quiet desperation” pronouncements, 262–4, 268

  richer people and countries happier, 268–71, 269

  and rose-tinted memory, 48, 271

  sex differences in, 284, 285

  social scientists’ measurement of, 264

  social support and, 271

  United States’ underachievement of, 271–4, 283–9, 288, 292, 439, 475nn30–31, 483n42

  See also anxiety; depression; Easterlin paradox; quality of life; suicide; well-being

  Harari, Yuval, 196, 197

  Hardy, Thomas, 294

  Harrington, Michael, 113, 456n1

  Harrison, Benjamin, 185

  Harrison, William Henry, 62–3

  Harris, Sam, 430, 443

  Harvard University, 141, 379, 400

  Hastorf, Al, 359

  hate crimes

  categorized as terrorism, 192

  downward trend of, 219–20, 220

  motives of killers, 196

  surge under Trump, putative, 219–20

  upticks following Islamist terror attacks, 219

  Hathaway, Oona, 163–4

  Hawking, Stephen, 296, 308

  Hayek, Friedrich, 5, 365

  health, 62–7

  cancer, 61, 146

  dementia/Alzheimer’s, 59

  and Flynn effect, 241–2

  happiness of nations with good, 271

  and life expectancy, 59

  See also food and food security; infectious disease; life expectancy; mental health

  health care

  research on, vs. consumer product R&D, 333

  social spending on, 109

  Trump and, 109, 334

  See also infectious disease; medicine

  hedonic treadmill, theory of, 263

  Hegel, Friedrich, 165

  Heidegger, Martin, 39–40, 406, 446, 447

  height, increases in, 242

  Heilbroner, Robert, 456n1

  Hellman, Lillian, 447

  hepatitis B, 382

  Herder, Johann, 30, 351

  heredity and environment, 241–2

  Herman, Arthur, 32, 33, 39–40, 166

  Heyns, Christopher, 209

  Hidalgo, Cesar, 455nn1,8, 456n11

  Hillel, Rabbi, 233–4, 260

  Hilleman, Maurice, 64

  Hinduism, 23, 398

  Hiroshima bombing, resilience and, 305

  Hirschman, Albert, 457n29, 482n55

  Hispanics, 239, 336

  Historical Index of Human Development, 245–6, 246, 473n45, 483n42

  Hitchens, Christopher, 430

  Hitler, Adolf, 161, 314, 398, 430, 445

  Hittites, 398

  HIV/AIDS, 55, 66, 66, 67, 401

  Hobbesian trap (security dilemma), 164, 173, 315

  Hobbes, Thomas, 8–9, 22, 49, 173, 412, 414

  Ho Chi Minh, 447

  Hoffman, Peter, 61

  Hofstadter, Richard, 486n36

  Holan, Angie, 375–6

  Holdren, John, 465n76

  Hollander, Paul, 447

  Holocaust, 161, 397, 399, 430

  Holodomor (Ukraine famine), 78

  homelessness, 116

  homeostasis, 22

  homicide, 168–76

  hate crimes as correlated with, 219, 471n19

  “justice” as motive for, 26

  rates of, 43, 169–72, 170, 171, 467nn12–13

  rule of law reducing, 43, 168–70

  vs. terrorist deaths, 192–3, 192

  vs. war deaths, 168, 192

  See also hate crimes; rampage shootings; terrorism and terrorists; violent crime

  homosexuality and homophobia, 214–15

  Cubans sent to labor camps, 376–7, 484n79

  decriminalization of, 223, 223, 417–18

  Internet searches, study of, 217–19, 218

  Muslim societies and, 223, 439

  Nazi mass murder of homosexuals, 399

  public opinion in the U.S., 216–17, 216

  Honduras, 172

  Hong Kong, 436, 457n8

  Hoodbhoy, Pervez, 442

  Horkheimer, Max, 396–7

  horse-drawn era, road fatalities and, 178–9

  Housel, Morgan, 49, 250

  housework, 251–2, 252

  Howard, Rhea, 140

  Howells, William Dean, 260

  HPV (human papillomavirus), 382

  Hugo, Victor, 341

  Human Development Index, 245–6, 246, 473n45, 483n42

  human flourishing, 51, 245–6, 247–8, 264–8, 412–15

  communism as failing to promote, 364

  democracy as contributor to, 199–200, 470n4

  in free markets with social spending and regulation, 365, 483n42

  as morality for cosmopolitan world, 418, 419

  progress, general factor, 245–6, 246, 473n45, 483n42

  See also humanism; living standards; quality of life; well-being, subjective

  humanism, 10–11, 410–53

  animals and, 410

  as maximizing human flourishing, 395, 410

  opposition to, 30–32, 419–20

  religions as clashing with, 30, 432–3

  religions compatible with, 412, 418, 431–2, 441

  See also Humanist Manifesto III; Humanist movement; religion; theism and theistic morality; Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  humanistic environmentalism. See ecomodernism

  Humanist Manifesto III (2003), 410–411

  Humanist movement, 410–412, 487nn1–3

  Humanitarian Revolution, 11, 43

  humanities

  digital humanities, 408

  disdain for science not typical of, 389–90

  downsizing of programs of, 405–6

  Second Culture policing of, 408–9

  unity of knowledge (consilience with science) and, 390, 406–9, 486n13

  See also academia; pessimism: cultural; postmodernism; science, disdain for; scientism; university and college education

  human nature, universal

  Enlightenment thinkers and embrace of, 10

  and humanism, 10–11

  See also evolutionary psychology

  HumanProgress (Web site), xviii, 52

  human rights

  vs. capital punishment, 210

  democracies as better with, 207

  education as, 234

  historical trends, 207–8, 208

  humanism and, 417

  monitoring of violations of, 207

  nationalism downplayed in favor of, 451

  negative freedom and, 265

  Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 207, 209, 411–12, 418–19

  Hume, David, 8–9, 10, 353, 392, 421

  Humphrey, John, 419

  Hungary, populism and, 201, 334, 341

  hunger. See food and food security; poverty

  hunter-gatherer peoples

  child mortality in, 55

  diet of, 23

  and egalitarianism vs. inequality, 102??
?3

  life expectancy of, 53–4, 58, 457n4

  persistence hunting, 353–4

  reason and, 353–4

  scientific skepticism among, 354

  violence among, 199, 470n1

  See also Hadza people; San people

  Huntington, Samuel, 200

  Hussein, Leyla, 442–3

  Hussein, Saddam, 199, 291, 366, 447

  Hutu people, 161

  Huxley, Aldous, 418

  Ibsen, Henrik, 284

  Iceland, 171, 475n30

  ideas

  democracy as, 206

  as historical forces, 347, 349–50, 405, 443, 448

  and infectious disease improvement, 67

  language and communication of, 27

  as patterns in matter, 22

  identity politics, 31, 342, 375

  identity-protective cognition

  blue lies and, 358–9

  cognitive dissonance and, 377

  institutions of reason as mitigating, 27–8, 376–7

  media and intellectuals and, 366–7

  and politics as predicting scientific belief, 356–8

  rationalization vs. reason and, 359

  scientific literacy as no cure for, 403

  and Tragedy of the Belief Commons, 358

  unappreciated, 379, 383

  See also cognitive biases

  Illusion of Explanatory Depth, 379–80

  immigrants and immigration

  cuisines introduced by, 259–60

  literature written by, 284

  social spending and, 110

  Trump and, 335, 336

  immortality, 60–61

  imperialism

  blamed on science, 34, 388, 399

  Muslim countries and, 439

  See also colonial governments

  income, 85–7, 86, 95–6

  and class distribution, 114–15

  disposable (after taxes and transfers) vs. market, 115–16, 116, 118, 254–5, 254

  global distribution of, 111

  after Great Recession, 115

  happiness as increasing with, 268–71, 269

  universal basic income, 119

  India

  agriculture in, 76

  Axial Age and, 23

  calories available per person in, 70, 70

  carbon emissions of, 143, 143–4

  civil wars in, 160

  colonial government of, 78

  democratization and, 200, 203

  education in, 238

  equal rights, moderate support for, 222

  escape from poverty of, 85, 86, 90

  famine in, 69, 72, 78

  GDP of, 85

  globalization and, 111

  industrialization and women in the workforce, 94

  liberalization of economy, 90

  liberal Muslim rule of 16th century, 442

  nuclear power and, 150

  nuclear weapons and, 307–8, 317, 318

  partition of, 49, 160

  per capita income of, 86

  as permit bureaucracy (“license raj”), 90

  population-control program of, 74

  poverty in, 89

  refugees and displaced persons, 160

  secularization and, 436

  social spending in, 109

  and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 419

  women’s rights and, 222

  indigenous peoples, 123, 199. See also hunter–gatherer peoples

  Indochina wars (1946–54), 160

  Indonesia

  anti-Communist purge (1965–66), 161, 484n77

  democratization and, 200, 203, 442

  military government of, 200

  nuclear power and, 150

  poverty in, 89

  social spending in, 109

  industrialization

  of the developing world, 92–4

  ecomodernist appreciation for, 123–4

  See also globalization; Industrial Revolution

  Industrial Revolution

  agriculture and, 74–5

  CO2 concentration, before and after, 136

  energy capture and release and, 24

  Gross World Product and, 81

  working conditions, harsh, 94, 185–6, 230

  inequality. See economic inequality; equal rights

  infectious disease, 62–7, 66

  and bioterrorism, difficulty with, 306–7

  eradication and control of, 63–7, 66, 307

  germ theory of, 63, 83

  and life expectancy setbacks, 55

  pandemics, falsely predicted, 307

  preindustrial poverty and, 80

  See also health; health care; life expectancy; medicine; vaccines; specific diseases

  information, 19–21

  accumulated in genome during evolution, 20, 21

  accumulated in neural activity, 20–21

  as basic constituent of the universe, 20

  economic measures difficult to apply to, 332–3

  as reduction in entropy, 19–20

  science as depending on, 391–2

  second machine age and, 330–32

  unknown to Enlightenment thinkers, 14, 386

  Inglehart, Ronald, 124, 224, 340, 491n106

  Inhofe, James, 387

  innumeracy

  as human nature, 26

  ideological, 48, 191

  and political ideologies, 360–61

  Inquisition, 442

  institutions, human, 28

  declining trust in, 29, 438, 456n1

  development of, and creation of wealth, 83–4

  and hope for progress, 12

  humanist ideals inspiring, 411–12

  integrity of, and emancipative values, 228

  loss of faith in, anxiety and, 286

  populism and disdain for, 333–4

  populist power limited via, 337–8

  See also commerce; government; trade; university and college education

  insurance, social spending as, 110

  intellectuals

  and consumerism, double standard about, 247–8

  dictator fanship of (tyrannophilia), 445, 446–7

  Enlightenment, ambivalence toward, 29–30, 249

  and equal rights, denial of advancements in, 215

  ideological innumeracy and, 48, 191

  and industrial work, rejection of, 92–3

  IQ tests rejected by, 243

  leftist tilt of, 372–3

  Negativity bias and, 48–9

  Nietzsche as influence on, 445, 446–7, 452

  perception of social isolation and loneliness, 274

  pessimism equated with moral seriousness, 49

  romance with Marxism, 363, 372

  and romantic militarism, 165–6

  as Second Culture, 33–4, 389–90, 456n12

  and skepticism regarding progress, 39–40, 456n1

  standard of living, disdain for, 34

  Trumpism inadvertently encouraged by, 343, 447–50, 491n118

  See also academia; declinism; faitheism; pessimism; romantic heroism; Romanticism; science, disdain for

  intelligence

  and the cognitive niche, 22–3

  Fermi Paradox, 308

  general intelligence factor (g), 242

  misperception about, causing fear of AI, 296–8

  networks of neurons and, 21

  subtypes of, 242

  See also Flynn effect; knowledge; reason

  Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, 367–8

  Intelligence Quoti
ent (IQ), rise in. See Flynn effect

  international community

  advantages of, 450–51

  foreign aid, 95

  nuclear war and importance of, 312, 315

  outlawry of war requiring, 163–4

  populism and rejection of, 334–8, 448, 449–51

  shaming campaigns, 222, 443

  international dollar, 80

  International Labour Organization, 232

  international trade agreements, Trump and, 334–5

  Internet

  access to, 257

  cyberattacks, 300–302, 304–6, 335

  education online, 238, 260, 331

  and entertainment, diversification of, 260–61

  searches on, prejudice revealed through, 217–19, 218, 339–40, 471n13

  See also social media

  intuition, actuarial formulas outperforming, 403–4

  Iran

  ancient (Persia), 23, 398

  capital punishment in, 209–210

  civil war in, 160

  compromise of nuclear centrifuges of, 304

  democratization and, 206

  fertility decreasing in, 126

  nuclear weapons and, 313, 337

  war with U.S. or Israel, discussion of, 313

  Iran-Iraq War, 160

  Iraq

  democratization and, 206

  Kuwait conquest (1990–91), 163

  terrorist deaths in, 193

  U.S.-led invasion of (2003), 158, 197, 206, 291, 313, 376, 439

  U.S. military fatalities in, 192

  Ireland, 436, 483n39

  Irish Republican Army, 195

  irrationality

  Enlightenment recognition of, 8–9, 353, 482n6

  and politicized issues, 381–4

  reason and, 8–9, 351, 353, 358, 375, 407

  See also cognitive biases; identity-protective cognition

  Irwin, Douglas, 462n63

  ISIS (Islamic State), 5, 42, 162, 198, 216, 404, 420

  Islam, 439–43

  antihumanistic doctrines in, 440–42

  and civilization, classical Arab, 439, 442

  Enlightenments in, 439, 442–3

  intellectual apologists for antihumanism, 441–2

  See also Arab countries; Muslim countries; Muslims

  Islamist extremists

  Availability heuristic and worries about, 42

  certainty of values of, 5, 420

  civil war increases since Cold War and, 158–9

  female literacy and, 240

  hate crimes following terror attacks, 219–20, 220

  and motives of terrorist killers, 196, 216

  number of Americans killed by, 194, 469n10

  perceived as threat to U.S., 42, 162, 198, 404

  and reactionary ideology of Sayyid Qutb, 441

  and right-wing nationalism, 451

  and Syrian civil war, 159

  theoconservatism (Christian) similar to, 449