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Do humankind's best days lie ahead? : Pinker & Ridley vs. De Botton & Gladwell / Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley, Alain de Botton, Malcolm Gladwell ; edited by Rudyard Griffiths.

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House of Anansi Press, c2016.

Social prediction.

Munk debates ; 17.

9781487001681 (pbk.)

1487001681 (pbk.)

viii, 111 p. ; 21 cm.

"Pro: Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley vs. Con: Alain de Botton, Malcolm Gladwell."--Front cover

"Progress. It is one of the animating concepts of the modern era. From the Enlightenment onwards, the West has had an enduring belief that through the evolution of institutions, innovations, and ideas, the human condition is improving. This process is supposedly accelerating as new technologies, individual freedoms, and the speed of global norms empower individuals and societies around the world. But is progress inevitable? Its critics argue that human civilzation has become different, not better, over the last two and a half centuries. What is seen as a breakthrough or innovation in one period becomes a setback or limitation in another. In short, progress is an ideaology, not a fact: a way of thinking about the world, as opposed to a description of reality. In the seventeenth semi-annual Munk Debate, which was held in Toronto on November 6, 2015, pioneering cognitive scientist Steven Pinker and influentioal author Matt Ridley squared off against noted philosopher Alain de Botton and bestselling author Malcolm Galdwell to debate whether human kind's best days lie ahead."--Back cover

De Botton, Alain,

Pinker, Steven, 1954-

Griffiths, Rudyard

Gladwell, Malcolm, 1963-

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