Enlightenment Now
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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