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

INDEX

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NOTE: Page numbers in italics indicate a graph or table.

abortion, 74, 224, 363, 387, 439, 449

Abrahms, Max, 196–7

abstract thinking, 26–7. See also Flynn effect

Abt, Thomas, 174, 175–6

academia

left-wing tilt of, 372–4, 388, 484n61

right-wing dismissal of, 374

See also university and college education

accidental deaths, 167–8, 176–90, 177, 179–80, 182, 187–9, 192, 468–9nn50,63

acts of God, 185, 187, 189, 190

Adams, Franklin Pierce, 48

Adnane, Souad, 442

Adorno, Theodor, 39–40, 396–7

adversarial collaboration, 379

Aeschylus, 23

affective tipping point, 377

Afghanistan

democratization and, 206

environment of, 130

happiness ranking of, 475n30

literacy rate in, 236, 239, 240, 473n27

polio in, 65

Soviet invasion of, 439

Taliban control of, 240, 473n27

terrorist vs. war deaths in, 192, 193

U.S.-led invasion of, 197, 206, 473n27

Africa (sub-Saharan)

agriculture in, 76, 77–8

calories available per person in, 70

carbon emissions of, 144

child mortality and, 56, 56

colonial governments of, 78

Communist governments in, 200, 201

conservation movement and, 123

democratization and, 203, 206

economic inequality in, 98

education in, 236–8, 237–8

emancipative values in, 227, 227

environment of, 130

famine in, 69, 72–3, 78

female genital mutilation in, 222

fertility rates and, 436

GDP of, 95

HIV/AIDS in, 55, 66, 67

homicide rates and concentrations in, 172

homophobia in, 223

Human Development Index score for, 473n45

IQ gains in, 241, 241

life expectancy in, 53–5, 54, 59

multiethnic neighbors, peacefulness of, 405

per capita income in, 86–7

and personal violence, deaths from, 167

postcolonial governments of, 78, 200, 201

religiosity and, 436

undernourishment in, 72

women’s rights and, 222

See also individual countries

African Americans

education and, 239

happiness of, 272, 273

hate crimes against, 215, 219, 220, 471n18

life expectancy of, 219

literacy rates of, 219

police killings of, 215–16, 471n6

poverty rate among, 219

and Tuskegee syphilis study, 401

See also racism

age (life cycle) effects, 225

happiness, 272–3

political orientation, 341–2, 342

religious belief, 437–8

suicide, 278, 279

voting preferences, 342

See also cohort effects; period (zeitgeist) effects

Age of Reason, 8, 411

agriculture

Agricultural Revolution, 75, 83

birth of, 74, 123

density of, 234

genetically modified crops, 77–8, 331

government policies disrupting, 78

Green Revolution, 75–8

industrialization and abandonment of, 92–3

invention of, 23

land devoted to, 76

life expectancy and, 53–4

mechanization of, 74–5

organic, 74, 134

prices, 75

reforestation of land and, 130, 134

rice cultivation, 69, 93, 123, 331

selective breeding, 74, 76

synthetic fertilizers, 75, 83

transportation and, 75, 77, 78

yield increases, 74–5

See also food and food security

AIDS/HIV, 55, 66, 66, 67, 401

AI. See artificial intelligence (AI)

Akbar I (Mughal emperor), 442

Akyol, Mustafa, 442

Alaska, universal basic income and, 119

Alcott, Louisa May, 284

Alexander, Amy, 440

Ali, Ayaan Hirsi, 443

Allen, Paul, 477n20

Allen, Woody, 204, 285–6

Al Qaeda, 196, 310, 441

Althusser, Louis, 447

alt-right movement, 341, 419, 448, 482n44

Amazon River and rainforest, 130, 141

American Heritage Dictionary, 260

Amin, Idi, 161, 199

anarchist movements, 198

anarchy, death toll from, 199, 206

Angell, Norman, 481n16

Angola, 160

animals

cruelty-to-animals laws, 417

humanism and, 410

predator/prey, 19

returns vs. extinctions of, 130, 133, 463n32

anocracies, 470n15

anthropology, 10, 233, 402

anti-Semitism, 219, 220. See also Holocaust

Anton, Michael (“Publius Decius Mus”), 448, 449

anxiety, 283

adulthood and, 288–9

“collapse anxiety,” 292

depression as comorbid with, 283

and institutions, loss of faith in, 286

media practices of encouraging, 287

as motivation to solve problems, 287

postwar increase in, 284

prevalence of depression and, 282–3, 476n74

sex differences in, 285

strategems for coping with, 287

women’s gains in autonomy and, 285

Appiah, Kwame Anthony, 443

Aquino, Corazon, 91

Arab countries

classical Arab civilization, 439, 442

clerical meddling in education, 234

slavery/racism and, 397

See also Muslim countries

Arab Spring (2011), 203, 228, 370

archaeology, 407

Argentina, 200, 315

Ariely, Dan, 353

Aristotle, eudaemonia, 267

Arkhipov, Vasili, 479n93

Armenia, 158

artificial intelligence (AI)

“Artificial General Intelligence” (AGI), 297, 298

and Enlightenment thinkers, 386

as existential threat, putative, 296–300, 477n20

job losses and, 118, 300

Value Alignment Problem, 299–300

arts and culture

availability of, 260–61

and consilience with science, 407–9

depicting traditionalism vs. modernity, 284

ideological innumeracy and, 48

Nietzsche as influence on, 445, 446–7

vs. science, 34, 389–90

Aryans, romantic heroism and, 33, 398, 444

Asafu-Adjaye, John, 122

Asia

authoritarian regimes, rise of, 200

carbon emissions of, 144

famine in, 69, 78

globalization and, 111, 112, 117

IQ gains in, 241

life expectancy in, 53–4, 54, 55

military governments of, 200

postcolonial governments of, 78

undernourishment in, 72

See also individual countries and subregions

Asians, hate crimes against, 219, 220

Asiri, Abdullah al-, 303

Assad, Bashar al-, 159

Astell, Mary, 252

atheism and atheists

charitable acts by, 432

dangers of self-labeling as, 435

definition of, 430

moral realism of, 429

“New Atheism,” 430

numbers of, 435, 436, 437–8, 489n68, 490n65

rising Intelligence Quotient test scores and, 438

wars by, 429–30

Athens (ancient), 212

Atkins, Peter, 17

Auden, W. H., 283, 446

Australia

education in, 237

emancipative values in, 225–7, 226, 227

and escape from poverty, 85

happiness ranking of, 475n30

IQ gains in, 241, 241

secularization and, 436, 437

social spending in, 108

traffic death rates in, 178

Austria, 341, 475n30, 489n68

Ausubel, Jesse, 76, 122, 127, 135, 142, 144

authoritarian governments

capitalist, China as, 90, 201, 203–4, 343

claiming the people unready for democracy, 204

democracies backsliding into, 201, 335

educated populace and resistance to, 235

execution of dissidents by, outrage at, 195

intellectual fans of, 445, 446–7, 491n118

patronal/kleptocratic, 205

and poverty, 90–91

premodern, 199, 397

See also populism

Authoritarian High Modernism, 11–12, 400

authoritarian populism. See populism

authority, deference to, 5

autocracy vs. democracy, 202–3, 202, 470n15

automation, 118–19, 300, 331

Availability heuristic, 41–2

awareness of, 369, 381, 383

critical thinking courses and, 378

doomsday prophecies and, 293, 302

media coverage and, 42–4, 201

superforecasters and awareness of, 369

terrorism and, 42, 195

Axial Age, 23, 264, 411

Azerbaijan, 158

Baby Boomers, 225

and crime boom of the 1960s, 173–4

depression and, 280–81

emancipative values and, 226

happiness underachievement of, 273, 283–9, 288

opioid overdoses and, 184–5

and populism, 341–2, 342

secularization and, 437

suicide and, 279–80

Babylon, 253–4

Bacon, Francis, 383

Bailey, Ronald, 464n45

Ball, Lucille, 186

Balmford, Andrew, 122

Banaji, Mahzarin, xix

Bangladesh

democratization and, 442

environment of, 130

escape from poverty of, 85, 86

famine and stunting in, 71, 71, 72

fertility as decreasing in, 126

industrialization and women in the workforce, 94

War of Independence (1971), 160, 161

Bannon, Stephen, 430, 448, 449, 455n1

Banting, Frederick, 63

Baron, Jonathan, 369

Barrett, Clark, 17

Basque ETA movement, 195

Batbie, Anselme, 341

Baudelaire, Charles, 30

Bauer, Peter, 79

Bauman, Zygmunt, 397

Baumeister, Roy, 267, 477n20

Bayesian reasoning, 369–70, 380, 381, 393

Bazile, Leon, 376

Beatles, 257, 274

beauty

in art, 395, 406, 407

counter-entropic patterns as, 18

evolutionary psychology of, 18, 407, 408, 426

intrinsic value of, 18, 35, 248, 414, 433–4

in religion, 432

from science, 34, 260, 386, 407–8, 433–4

Beccaria, Cesare, 12, 174, 417

BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage), 151

Beckett, Samuel, 456n10

Belarus, 209, 313

Belgium, 169, 170, 259

Bell, Daniel, 390

Benin, 203, 475n30

Benjamin, Walter, 39–40

Benny, Jack, 333

Bentham, Jeremy, 223, 417

Bergman, Ingmar, 280

Berlin, Isaiah, 344

Berlin Wall, 163, 200–201, 203

Berry, Ken, 316

Best, Charles, 63

Better Angels of Our Nature, The (Pinker), 45–6

battle deaths (1946–2016), 159–60, 159

capital punishment, 209, 211

democracy vs. autocracy, 202

genocide deaths, 161

hate crimes, 220

homicide rates, 171

homosexuality, decriminalization of, 223

most recent year of data, 156, 466n1

objections to reliance on data in, 43–7

racist, sexist, and homophobic opinions, 216

rape and domestic violence, 221

terrorism deaths, 194

trends of, generally, 156

victimization of children, 229

war between great powers, 157–8, 157

Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, 282, 404

Bettmann, Otto, 178–9, 185, 186

Bible

antihumanistic content of, 440

crucifixion in, 208

despotism in, 199

in fabric of human knowledge, 433

famine in, 68

life expectancy in, 58

literal truth of, belief in, 489n53, 490n84

maternal pain and suffering in, 57

morality as relative in, 429

on the poor, 89

prophets in, 49, 293

suicide in, 278

See also God

Bierce, Ambrose, 428

Big Bang, 17, 385, 424

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 66

bin Laden, Osama, 443

biochar, 150

bioethics, research and committees for, 402

bioterrorism, 300–302, 305, 306–7

Birdzell, L. E., 79

black swans. See power-law distribution; rare events

Blake, William, 92

Blank Slate, The: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Pinker), 45, 373, 484n61

Bloom, Paul, 101–2

Blue Collar (film), 113

blue lies, 358–9

Bogotá, Colombia, 172

Bohr, Niels, 308

Boko Haram, 67, 162

Boltzmann, Ludwig, 15

Bonaparte, Napoleon, 84–5

books, 239, 260–61, 408

Borlaug, Norman, 75–6, 77

Bornstein, David, 50

Bosch, Carl, 75

Bosnia, 151, 404, 436

Boston, Massachusetts, 130, 172, 183

Botswana, 91, 141

Boyd, Richard, 429

Boyer, Paul, 311

brain

consciousness and, 426

hearing and, 20–21

human investment in bigger, 22–3

intelligence and, 21, 242

as metabolically greedy organ, 242

pleasure and pain and, 414

See also cognitive biases; intelligence; reason

Brand, Stewart, 77, 122, 123, 133, 149, 301–2, 463n32, 465n76

Brandt, Willy, 200

Branwen, Gwern, 303

Braudel, Fernand, 68, 69, 79

Brazil, 90, 109, 172, 178, 200

Brecht, Bertolt, 23, 224, 447

Brezhnev, Leonid, 203

Briand, Aristide, 164

Briggs, John, 463n32

Brink, David, 429

Brin, Sergey, 100

Brockman, John, 390

Brontë, Charlotte, 284

Bronze Age, life expectancy and, 54

Brooklyn Dodgers, 179

Brooks, Rodney, 477n20

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 230

Bruno, Giordano, 442

Bryce, Robert, 146

Buddhism, 23, 204, 412

Buffet, Warren, 117

bullying, 49

Burckhardt, Jacob, 165

Burke, Edmund, 341, 363, 366

Burkina Faso, 203

Burma. See Myanmar

Burroughs, William S., 456n10

Burtless, Gary, 115

Burundi, 141, 161, 475n30

Bush, George W.

African AIDS relief policy of, 67

among know-nothings, 374–5

disdain for science and, 60, 387, 389

and nuclear weapons, 291, 319

prescription drug benefit of, 109

wealth creation malaprop, 81

Buturovic, Zeljka, 362

Cambodia, 78, 147, 161, 238

Cameroon, 162

Campbell, David, 432

Campbell, Joseph, 456n1

Camus, Albert, 446

Canada

child mortality and, 56

depression and, 282

economic freedom in, 365, 483n39

education in, 237

emancipative values in, 225–7, 226, 227

and escape from poverty, 85

happiness and well-being, 438–9, 475n30

homicide rates in, 171

populism and, 341

secularization and, 436, 437, 438–9

social spending in, 108, 109, 365, 483n39

cancer, 61, 146

Cantril, Hadley, 266, 359

capitalism

authoritarian, China and, 90, 201, 203–4, 343

as coexisting with regulations, 364, 365

as coexisting with social spending, 364, 365, 483nn39,42

and cultures, 85

and Great Escape from poverty, 90–91, 364

unbridled/unregulated/untrammeled, 364

See also commerce; economic inequality; economics

capital punishment

abolition of, 208–213, 209

cognitive bias study referencing, 359–60

homosexual behavior criminalized, 223

Capp, Al, 297

Caracas, Venezuela, 172

carbon tax, 139, 145–6, 149

Carey, John, 247

Caribbean countries, 89, 175, 201, 203

Carlson, Robert, 307

Carroll, Sean, 385

Carter Center, 65

Carter, Jimmy, 67

Carter, Richard, 63–4

Castro, Fidel, 376–7, 447, 484n79

Catholic Church, education and, 234

Catholic countries, emancipative values in, 227, 227

Catholics, 222, 437, 440

Central African Republic, 95, 162, 236

Central Asia, democratization and, 206

Chad, 160, 162

Chalk, Frank, 160–61

Chalmers, David, 425–6

Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, 398

Chaplin, Charlie, 186

charitable giving

Effective Altruism, 381

as factor in happiness, 271

Charlie Hebdo massacre, 370

Chase, Chevy, 266

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 181

Chávez, Hugo, 91, 171, 447

Chekhov, Anton, 284, 387

Chenoweth, Erica, 405

Chernobyl disaster (1986), 146

child mortality, 55–7, 56, 58, 66–7, 66, 125

children, 228–30

abuse of, 229

bullying at school, 229

child labor, 230–32, 231

child marriage ban, 222

childrearing in emancipative values, 224

corporal punishment of, 229–30

negative media coverage of, 229

stunting due to undernourishment, 70–71, 71

trafficking in, 232

See also child mortality; education; teenagers

Chile

child mortality and, 56

earthquake (2010), 188

education and literacy in, 236, 238

GDP of, 85

military government of, 200

poverty in, 91

China

An Lushan Rebellion, 484n77

authoritarian capitalism of, 90, 201, 203–4, 343

Axial Age and, 23

calories available per person in, 70, 70

capital punishment in, 209–210

carbon emissions of, 143, 143, 144

childhood stunting in, 71, 71

Chinese Civil War, 49, 158, 160, 199

Cultural Revolution (1966–75), 91, 161, 208

democratization and, 206

education in, 237, 237, 238

escape from poverty of, 85, 86, 90

famine in, 69, 72, 78

GDP of, 85

globalization and, 111

Great Leap Forward (1958–61), 78, 91

Great Recession and, 112

human rights in, 208, 208

mass killings (genocide deaths) in, 161

nuclear power and, 147, 150

nuclear weapons and, 313, 317, 318, 320

per capita income of, 86

perception of the world as getting better, 457n8

population-control program of, 74

quality of life and, 247

secularization and, 436

social spending in, 109

Tiananmen Square protests, 208

traffic death rates in, 178

and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 419

China Syndrome, The (film), 147–8

chlorofluorocarbons ban (1987), 134

Chomsky, Noam, 443, 456n1

Christian militias, 162

Christians and Christianity

humanist denominations, 412

killings by ISIS, 162

Nietzsche’s rejection of, 444

religiosity of nation-states in world wars, 429–30

theoconservatism, 448–9

wars of religion, 8, 10, 364, 450, 488n46

See also Bible; Evangelical Christians

Churchill, Winston, 205, 341

Cicero, 397

Cipolla, Carlo, 79–80

cities. See cosmopolitanism; urbanization

civic associations, 235, 432, 447, 472n12

Civilizing Process, 43

civil wars, 158, 466n11

cost of, 91

decline of, after Cold War, 91, 158–60, 164

famine and, 78

terrorist deaths primarily taking place in, 193

uptick in the mid-2010s, 158–60

Claremont Institute, 448, 491n118

classical Greece and Rome

Aryan/Romantic hero theory and, 33, 398, 444

Axial Age and, 23

and democracy, 212, 381

execution of Socrates, 58, 212

racism and slavery in, 397

suicide and, 278

theistic morality and, 428, 431

See also Plato

classical liberalism. See Enlightenment, the

Clemenceau, Georges, 341

climate change, 136–54

carbon capture and storage, 150–51

carbon taxes, 139, 145–6, 149

climate justice movement, 138–9, 141–2

cognitive impediments to understanding, 140

decarbonization, 142–6, 143–4, 150–52

denial of, 137, 138, 139, 357

depoliticizing the discourse of, 382

geoengineering solutions, 150–51, 152–4, 382–3

nuclear power and, 144–5, 146–50, 465n76

Paris agreement, 134, 152, 335, 449

religious Cornwall Declaration on, 287

scientific literacy on, 356–7

spokespeople for, 382

Trump and, 335

Clinton, Bill, 67, 294, 449

Clinton, Hillary, presidential campaign of

analysis of voting patterns, 339, 438

conspiracy theories and, 358, 449

loss of, 214, 215

media and, 343, 449

popular vote won by, 214, 334, 338

theoconservatives and, 449

Clockwork Orange, A (film), 175

clothing

affordable, 80, 94, 117, 118

globalization and, 118, 462n63

coal

carbon-to-hydrogen ratio of, 143, 144, 465n67

cooking with, 183

gasification conversion to liquid fuel, 151

as replacing nuclear power plants, 147

See also climate change; energy; petroleum

Coal Miner’s Daughter (film), 113

Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire (1942), 183

cognition

combinatorial/recursive power of, 27

evolution of, not adapted to modernity, 25

language and, 27

See also abstract thinking; cognitive biases; Flynn effect; identity-protective cognition; intelligence

cognitive behavioral therapy, 175, 282

cognitive biases, 25–6, 353, 354–5, 403–4

adulthood mistaken for harsher world, 48

autobiographical memory and, 48, 281

bias bias of researchers, 361–3, 374

biased evaluation, 359

cognitive dissonance reduction, 377

confirmation biases, 369, 378

critical thinking courses, 377–8

debiasing programs, 378–9

decline in self mistaken for decline in times, 48

historical lag in recognizing, 383

Illusion of Explanatory Depth, 379–80

information sought to reinforce identity, 360

intuition outperformed by formulas, 403–4

motivated reasoning, 359, 377

My-Side bias, 359

Negativity bias, 47–8, 293

Optimism Gap, 40, 115, 225–6, 268

Rationality Community avoiding, 381

science as helping to overcome, 403

thinking in scale and in orders of change, 140

See also Availability heuristic; identity-protective cognition

cognitive psychology

and human irrationality, 351, 353

and literary scholarship, 407

Cohen, Leonard, 183

Cohen, Roger, 420

cohort (generational) effects

depression, 280–81, 282, 283, 476n74

emancipative values, 225–8, 226, 227

happiness, 273–4

liberalism, 216–17

populist support, 341–2, 342

religious belief, 437–8

social support, 275

suicide, 279–80

voting patterns, 342

See also age (life cycle) effects; Baby Boomers; Generation X; GI Generation; Millennials; period (zeitgeist) effects; Silent Generation

Cold War

autocratic governments propped up during, 91

civil wars during, 91, 158–60, 164

Colombian peace agreement and end of, 158

end of, and alleviation of poverty, 91

famine and, 78

New Peace following, 43

terrorism declining in period following, 195

See also nuclear war

Collier, Paul, 91

Colombia, 71, 71, 158, 172

colonial governments

and conquest, 163–4

famine exacerbated by, 78, 459n35

See also imperialism; postcolonial governments

commerce, 12–13

bourgeois virtue, development of, 84–5

cronyism, 83

institutions facilitating, 83–4

open economies, 83–4, 90–91

sectarian hatreds ameliorated by, 84

See also trade

—GENTLE COMMERCE, 13, 84, 162, 198–9, 228

American founders and, 13

and violent crime, historical reduction of, 168–9

communality, as scientific virtue, xvii–xviii

communism

collapse of, and escape from poverty, 90–91

democratic second wave pushed back by, 200

as failing to promote human flourishing, 364

famine exacerbated by, 78, 459n36

opposition to religion, 430, 436, 438

“primitive,” 102–3

quality of life and, 247, 248

romantic heroism and, 31, 165, 445

“scientific racism” and, 398

See also Marxism; Marxist guerrillas and terrorists

Compstat program, 380

computation

and consciousness, 426

and knowledge, 21

computers, delayed productivity growth from, 330. See also Artificial Intelligence; Internet

conatus (effort or striving), 19, 453

Condorcet, Nicolas de, 10

Confucianism, 23, 412, 418

Congo, poverty in, 89

Connor, Steven, 48

consciousness, 22, 407, 423, 425–8, 488n43

consequentialism, 416. See also utilitarianism

conservation areas, 123, 132–3, 133

conservation successes, 130, 133, 463n32

conspiracy theories

AIDS/HIV and, 401

as expression of tribal loyalty, 358–9

Trumpism and, 336, 358, 375, 376

consumerism, 33, 47, 165, 247–8, 251, 263, 431

consumer products

consumer price index, 81–2

and consumer surplus, 82, 117, 332

consumption over time, 116–18, 116

declining prices of, 82, 251, 254–5, 254

household appliances, 251–2, 252

improvement over time of, 82, 117, 332

consumer surplus. See paradox of value

cooking smoke, 130–31, 463n28

Coolidge, Calvin, Jr., 63

Coontz, Stephanie, 113

cooperation

evolution of capacity for, 23, 415, 453

Humanist Manifesto III on, 411

Kant’s “unsocial sociability,” 482n6

well-being and, 31

Cornwall Declaration on Stewardship, 287

corporal punishment, 12, 43, 229–30

corruption, as factor in happiness, 271

Cosmides, Leda, 17

cosmopolitanism, 11

and civilizations, development of, 450–51

declared a failure, 420

and diversification of diet, 259–60

multiethnic communities, 405, 448, 450

and sympathy, circle of, 221

virtues of science as, 409

counter-Enlightenments

declinism, 32–3, 165

disdain for science, 33–4

nationalism, 30–31

religion, 30, 31

rise of, 29–30

Romanticism as, 30, 351

romantic militarism and, 165–6

See also fascism; intellectuals; nationalism; populism; religion; romantic heroism; Romanticism; science, disdain for

Counts, George, 234

Coyne, Jerry, 422, 430

Crawford, Jarret, 373

creationism, 19, 22, 356, 387, 398

Crick, Francis, 386

Crimea, annexation by Russia (2014), 164, 335

criminal punishment, 11, 12, 174, 439. See also capital punishment; violent crime

CRISPR-CAS9 gene-editing, 306–7

Critical Theory (Frankfurt School), 396–7, 406, 446

critical thinking instruction, 377–8

Croatia, 203

Cronin, Audrey, 196–7

Cronon, William, 123

Cruz, Ted, 336

Cuba, 206, 247, 376–7, 447, 484n79

Cuban Missile Crisis, 309, 312, 479n93

cultures, human development of, 23

cybernetics, 21–2

Czech Republic, 341, 489n68

d’Alembert, Jean-Baptiste, 10

Dante, 63

Darfur, 162

Darwin, Charles

Argument from Design refuted by, 421

death of children of, 56

falsely tied to scientific racism, 398, 400, 486n32

falsely tied to Social Darwinism, 398–9, 400

on humans as single species, 398

and replicating systems and evolution, 18–19

See also evolution; natural selection

data, 42–3, 44–5, 48

dataphobic mindset, 48, 49, 404–5

literary scholarship and science of, 408

most recent date for graphs in book, 156, 466n1

objections to use of, 44–7

sources of, 52

See also objective measurement; prediction

Davies’s Corollary. See Stein’s Law

Dawkins, Richard, 430, 455n6, 488n7

Deaton, Angus, 54, 56, 62, 67, 89, 92, 103–4, 269, 272, 459n16

Declaration of Independence, 12, 413

declinism, 32–3, 165. See also intellectuals; pessimism

Deconstructionism, 352, 446. See also Derrida, Jacques; Foucault, Michel; postmodernism

deep decarbonization, 145–6, 150

“deepity,” 433

“deep state,” 337, 448

Deepwater Horizon accident, 132

deforestation, 130, 131

and climate change, 136

reforestation, 76, 130, 134, 150, 459n25

DeFries, Ruth, 122, 128

Dehaene, Stanislas, 426

deism and deists, 8

Enlightenment thinkers as, 18, 22

Hitler as, 430

and morality, 422

dementia/Alzheimer’s disease, 59, 327

democracy, 199–213

civics-class ideal of, 204, 206

contributor to flourishing, 199–200, 470n4

criteria for measuring, 201–2, 470n15

education of populace and, 235

fall of Berlin Wall and, 163, 200–201, 203

and Fukuyama’s “end of history,” 201

negative freedom and, 265

three waves of, 200–201, 202–3, 202

Trump and disdain for, 335–6, 337, 374

undermining of, 335, 374

voter ignorance in, 204

voter turnout, 343, 438

voting and elections in, 204–5, 381

war reduced by, 162–3

See also freedom of speech; human rights

Democratic Party

and climate change, 357

increased partisanship of, 371–2

innumeracy of, on polarized topics, 361

journalists in, 484n54

See also political ideologies of left and right

demographic transition, 125, 135–6, 436. See also population

demonetization, 332–3

Deng Xiaoping, 90

Denmark, 438–9, 451, 475n30, 483n39

Dennett, Daniel, 427, 430, 433

Denney, Reuel, 274

deontological ethics, 416–18

depression, 280–83, 284, 476n74

Derrida, Jacques, 406, 446

Descartes, René, Cogito ergo sum, 352

DeScioli, Peter, 415

Deutsch, David, ix, 7, 46, 295–6, 392, 410

developed countries/world, 96

life expectancy inequalities, 54–5, 95–6

lower middle classes affected by globalization, 112, 113, 118–19, 339, 340

maternal mortality changes in, 57–8, 57

natural disaster resilience of, 187–9, 188

Secularization Thesis and, 435–6, 438

social spending as universal to, 110, 115

developing countries/world, 96

calorie availability in, 70, 70

child labor and, 232

digital technology adoption by, 244

and environmental problems, awareness of, 124

escape from poverty of, 85–6, 85

Green Revolution in, 75–8

infectious disease improvements in, 67

life expectancy inequalities in, 54–5, 59, 95–6

maternal mortality changes in, 57–8, 57

natural disaster vulnerability of, 188–9

pollution in, 130–31, 463n28

safe drinking water and, 130–31, 463n28

social spending in, 109–110

undernourishment and stunting in, 70–72, 71–2

Devereux, Stephen, 72–3, 459nn35–36

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), 281, 282

Diamandis, Peter, 330

Diamond, Jared, 450–51, 465n76

diarrhea, childhood deaths from, 66

Dickens, Charles, 230, 249

Diderot, Denis, 10, 13

Didion, Joan, 456n1

digital manufacturing, 330–31

disaster sociology, 305

disease. See health; infectious disease; medicine

dishwashers, 252

Disraeli, Benjamin, 130, 341

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee, 284

DNA

discovery of, 386

information accumulation and evolution of, 20

testing of, and wrongful capital punishment, 212

Doctorow, E. L., 456n1

Dominican Republic, 188

Doobie Brothers, 147

Doomsday Clock, 308–9, 311

Douglas, Michael, 147–8

drowning deaths, 182, 182

drugs, illegal

overdose deaths from, 182, 183, 184–5

violence produced by, 175–6

drugs, pharmaceutical

for depression, 281, 282

and infectious disease improvements, 67

“miracle drugs” no better than placebo, 61

for “orphan diseases,” 333

overdose deaths from, 182, 183, 184–5

side effects worse than the disease, 61

See also medicine

drunk driving, 178

Dryden, John, 407–8

D’Souza, Dinesh, 427

Duarte, José, 373

Du Bois, W. E. B., 447

Dylan, Bob, 341

ear and hearing, 18, 20–21

earthquake deaths, 187, 188

East Africa, famine in, 73

East Asia

education in, 236–8, 237–8

emancipative values in, 227, 227

interstate combat reduced in, 158

secularization and, 436, 489n68

undernourishment in, 72

Easterbrook, Gregg, 292, 457n29

Easterlin paradox, 263, 268–9, 270–71

Easterlin, Richard, 263, 268–9

Eastern Europe, 90, 200, 201, 236–7, 237, 271

Ebola, 307

ecomodernism, 32, 122–4, 134–6, 154–5

economic inequality, 97–120

absolute vs. relative inequality, 103, 114

anonymous vs. longitudinal data, 112–13, 114–15

conflation with poverty, 98–9

conflation with unfairness, 101–2

destructive events reducing, 106–7

economic stagnation and, 328–9

Gini, 98, 103, 109, 115, 118, 461n4, 467n12

Gini indexes for consumption, 117–18

global and international, 103–5, 104–5

government role in ameliorating, 119

graduated income tax and, 107

happiness stagnation of U.S. and, 272

homicide rates and, 170–71, 467n12

and individual psychology, 99–102

Kuznets curve, inequality vs. time, 103–6, 110, 111

lower classes not worse off, 114–18, 116

lower middle classes and, 112, 113, 118–19, 339, 340

as political issue, 97

rise of, beginning about 1980, 110–113, 111

social spending and, 107–110, 115–16, 116

Spirit Level theory of effects of, 100–101

theoretical basis for, 102–3

and theory of social comparison, 99–100

Trump and, 335

zero-sum thinking about, 99

economics

comparative advantage, 92

demonetization, 332–3

and infectious disease improvements, 67

information tech confounding measures, 332–3

populist elections not determined by, 339, 340

See also capitalism; commerce; consumer products; economic inequality; economic stagnation; GDP; globalization; Great Recession; Gross World Product; Kuznets curve; paradox of value; poverty; productivity; social spending; wealth

economic stagnation, 328–33

Eddington, Arthur, 16–17

Edison, Thomas, 252

education

basic educational attainment, 236–8, 237

and child labor, end of, 230–31

compulsory, 231, 234

cost of, 118

critical thinking and debiasing instruction, 377–9

democracy and peace dividend from, 235

distance learning, 238, 331

Enlightenment values and, 234, 235–6

and escape from poverty, 234

formal schools, development of, 233–4

future of, 331

of girls and women, 235, 239–40, 239, 473n27

and global well-being, 245–6, 246, 473n45

as human right, 234

and IQ scores, global rise in, 242, 245

modern economies and requirements of, 118

online courses, 238, 260, 331

population peak and, 238

preschool programs, 239

religions meddling in, 234

school readiness, improvements in, 239

secularization and, 435–6, 438

substandard, 118

Trump and, 335, 339

utilitarianism and, 417

See also literacy; university and college education

Effective Altruism, 119, 381, 403, 462n69

Egalitarian Revolution, 107

Ehrlich, Paul, 64, 74, 366, 465n76

Einstein, Albert, 308, 309

Eisenhower, Dwight D., 280

Eisner, Manuel, 169, 171, 174

Eldering, Grace, 64

electricity, 141, 146–50, 251, 252, 330

Elias, Norbert, 168–9

Elion, Gertrude, 64

Eliot, T. S., 284, 456n10

El Salvador, 85, 86, 158, 172

emancipative values, 224–8

age vs. period vs. cohort effects and, 224–5, 226–7, 227–8, 341–2

environmental protection and, 124

GDP as predictor of, 228

and hierarchy of needs, 224

Knowledge Index as predictor of, 228, 472n45

secularization and, 438

emotions, evaluations of well-being and, 267. See also happiness; well–being, subjective

Encyclopédistes, 353

Enders, John, 64

energy

battery storage of, 146, 150, 330

biomass, 146, 147, 151

deaths caused by various sources of, 146–7

fossil fuels as 86 percent of world’s total, 137

natural gas, 136, 143, 147, 183

new technologies, 330

nuclear, 144–5, 146–50, 330, 465n76

as resisting entropy, 23–4, 32

smart grids, 330

solar and wind, 146, 147, 330

See also coal; food and food security; petroleum

Engels, Friedrich, 103

England

air pollution and, 130

calories available per person, 70, 70

child labor force in, 230, 231, 231

and commerce, embrace of, 84–5

cost of artificial light in, 253, 253, 254

homicide rates in, 169, 170, 171, 171

and literacy, female, 239, 239

poverty workhouses, 79

rights, statement of, 411

romantic militarism of, 165–6

suicide rates in, 278–9, 279

transition, patronage to open economy, 83–4

water pollution and, 130

See also United Kingdom

Enlightenment, the, 7–14

capital punishment and, 210

and consilience, unity of knowledge, 390

criticized as Western, 29–30, 419

defense needed, 4–6, 29, 34–5, 349–50, 451–3

definition of (Kant), 7–8, 289

education and, 234, 235–6

Islamic Enlightenment, movement for, 442–3

Emanuel Macron’s victory speech defending, 339

media pronouncements of failure, 338, 420, 451

non-Western, 29–30, 419, 439, 442–3, 456n2

Obama’s farewell speech crediting, 338, 481n30

opposition to. See counter-Enlightenments

populism not a referendum on, 338–9, 481nn30,32

spirit of commerce, 84

spirit of science, 409

and sympathy, 415

theoconservatism and rejection of, 449

war denunciation and alternatives, 162–3

wealth as created vs. finite, 12–13, 80

Enslow, Linn, 64

entropy, 13–19

energy capture as resisting, 23–4, 32

immortality unlikely due to, 61

indifference of the universe and, 24

living things as locally anti-entropic, 18–19, 20

See also Entropy, Law of; order

Entropy, Law of, 15, 16

and creationist arguments against evolution, 19

and death, ease of, 25, 414–15

everyday sayings illustrating, 16

harms more potent than benefits, 28

importance of, 16–17

meaning of life as fighting back against, 17, 344

progress and, 344

See also Second Law of Thermodynamics

environmentalism, humanistic. See ecomodernism

environmental movement (traditional), 32, 121–2

greenism, 32, 122, 129

misanthropy of, 122, 134, 154

opposition to genetically modified crops, 77

population bomb, fear of, 56, 73–4, 125–6, 125

resource shortages, fear of, 126–7

successes of, 121, 134, 463n35

sustainability, 127–9, 328

technological solutions, hostility to, 124–5, 151

See also environmental protection

Environmental Performance Index, 130

environmental protection, 121–2, 134–6

acid rain treaties, 134

anxiety produced by, 286–7

cooking smoke, 130–31, 463n28

deforestation, 130, 131

dematerialization and, 135

densification and, 134–5

developing countries addressing, 130–31

drinking water, 63, 130–31, 463n28

emission reductions, 129–30

government regulation and, 133–4, 136

hierarchy of needs and, 124

Kuznets curve for, 124, 463n9, 463n35

landfills and garbage, 287

nuclear weapons test ban treaty, 133–4

oil spills, 131–2, 132

ozone layer, 134

Peak Stuff and, 135–6

as right-wing movement in former days, 382

species returns vs. extinctions, 130, 133, 463n32

Trump and, 335

utilitarian motives for, 417

waterway improvements, 130

See also climate change

—POLLUTION

agriculture and, 123

as cost of gifts of industrialization, 123–4

energy and growth and, 129–30, 129

Law of Entropy and, 123

poverty and, 130–31, 463n28

Episcopalians (liberal), 412

equal rights, 214–28

of children, 228–32, 229, 231

denial of advances in, 215

education of populace and, 235

global progress in, 222–3, 223

humanism and, 417

moral arc of, 223–4

popularity of, 216–19, 216, 218, 471n13

populist backlash against, 219, 221, 225, 333, 340

and racial gap, closing of, 219

religious expression, 222

Trump’s hostility to, 336

and women’s status, 220

See also emancipative values; hate crimes; homosexuality and homophobia; racism; sexism; women: rights of

Erdogan, Recep, 201

Erwin, Douglas, 463n32

Estonia, 306

ethics. See morality

Ethiopia

child mortality and, 56

civil war (1974–91), 160

escape from poverty of, 85, 86

life expectancy at birth, 59

maternal mortality in, 57

and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 419

eudaemonia (“good spirit”), 267

eugenics, 388, 399–400

Europe

accidents and accidental deaths in, 180–81

calories available per person in, 70, 70

capital punishment abolition in, 208–9, 210

carbon emissions of, 144, 144

Civilizing Process of, 168–9

emancipative values, rise in, 225–7, 226, 227

famine in, 68–9

fertility rates falling in, 125

happiness rising with GDP, 270–71

IQ gains in, 241

life expectancy in, 53–4, 54, 55

populism in, 334, 338–9, 341–2, 342, 438, 451, 481n32

poverty in, 79–80

rule of law established in, 43

social spending in, 107

suicide rates and, 278–80, 279

wars. See peace; World War I; World War II

See also Middle Ages; individual countries and subregions

Euthyphro (Plato), 428–9, 431

Evangelical Christians

environmentalists seeking common cause, 432

religiosity of, 440

size of group, 437, 489n75

as Trump voters, 432–3

voter turnout of, 438

Evans, Dylan, 477n20

Evans, Gareth, 313

Evans, Mariah, 101

Evola, Julius, 448, 491n118

evolution, 18–19

belief in, ideology vs. scientific literacy, 356

competition and malevolence and, 25

creationism vs., 19, 30, 356

genetic individuality and, 25

idea unknown to Enlightenment thinkers, 14, 386

immortality made unlikely due to, 61

indifference of the universe and, 24–5

information accumulation in genome and, 20, 21

life and living things as anti-entropic, 18–19, 20

moral sentiments selected by, 415

plant selection and, 76

unselfish behavior and, 25

See also natural selection

evolutionary psychology, 22–4, 25–7, 353–5

consciousness and, 426

group vs. gene as beneficiary of adaptation, 448

and literary scholarship, 407–8

and nationalism, 450

reason and, 353

of religion, 431

sympathy and, 415

Ewald, Paul, 306, 307

Existentialism, 33, 40, 446, 447

existential threats, 290–321

artificial intelligence as, 296–300, 477n20

Availability and Negativity biases and, 293

civilizations, destruction of, 295–6

dangers of overemphasizing, 291–2

gravitas market and, 49, 293, 452

hackers/evil geniuses, 300–307

human species extinction, 294–5

hypothetical vs. real, 291–2

natural disasters, 294–6

resilience of humans in face of, 305–6

risk estimation of highly imaginable, 292, 305

risk estimation of highly improbable, 292–3

technology as averting, 295–6

technology as causing, 293, 294

See also nuclear war

expressive rationality. See identity-protective cognition

extinction

of human species, 294–5

mass extinctions, 133

rebound of species, 130, 133, 463n32

extraterrestrial life, 166, 308

Facebook, 255, 256

faitheism, 31–2, 430

and existential questions, 433

Islamic antihumanism, apologists for, 441–2

negative vs. positive effects of religion, 431–3

religion as human need, 430–31

religious doctrine as allegory, 431, 489n53

and science, disdain for, 430

spirituality and, 433–5

See also intellectuals; theism and theistic morality

Falkland Islands, 315

falls, deaths from, 181–2, 182, 468n50

Falwell, Jerry, 294

family life, time for, 255–6, 256

famine. See under food and food security

Fanon, Frantz, 39–40, 405

FARC guerrillas, 158

Fariss, Christopher, 207

fascism

and decline of democratic governments, 200

Italian, 445, 446

neo-fascism, 419, 448, 451

Nietzsche as inspiring, 445, 448

populism and, 448, 491n118

See also Nazi Germany

fatalism

about accidents, 185

from consuming negative news, 42

from environmentalism, 121

from the Negativity bias, 47

from warnings of existential threats, 292

fate

denial of among successful forecasters, 370

as refuted by scientific revolution, 24, 394

“spirituality” as belief in, 434

See also fatalism; purpose, absence of in nature

female genital mutilation, 222

Fermi Paradox, 308

Feshbach, Herman, 308

Feynman, Richard, 390

Finkelhor, David, 229

Finland, 115, 457n8, 475n30, 489n68

fire and smoke deaths, 182–3, 182

Fischer, Claude, 274–5, 475n46

fisheries, 325

Flanders & Swann, 15

Flannery, Tim, 465n76

Flaubert, Gustave, 284

Fleming, Alexander, 63

flood control, 188

Florey, Howard, 64

Flynn effect, 240–45, 241

atheism and, 438

Flynn, James, 240, 243, 244

Foege, William, 64, 65

Fogel, Robert, 68–9

Follett, Chelsea, 93

Fonda, Jane, 147–8

Fontane, Theodor, 284

food and food security, 19, 68–78, 70–73

achievement of, as energy capture, 23–4

nutritional quality and IQ rise, 241–2

obesity epidemic, 69, 117

undernourishment, 70–72, 71–2

See also agriculture

—DIET

diversification of, 259–60

of hunter-gatherers, 23

toxic, danger of (omnivore’s dilemma), 167

—FAMINE, 68–9, 72–4, 73, 78

and fear of population explosion, 73–4

governments exacerbating, 78, 459nn35–36

nuclear winter as producing, 308

in twentieth century, 72–3, 78, 459n36

Ford, Gerald, 275

forecasting tournaments, 368–71, 380, 393, 404

foreign aid, 95

Forster, E. M., 257

Förster-Nietzsche, Elisabeth, 445

Fortna, Virginia Page, 196–7, 404

fossil fuels. See coal; energy; petroleum

Foucault, Michel, 39–40, 397, 406, 446, 447

fracking, 143

France

calories available per person, 70, 70

emancipative values in, 225–7, 226, 227

famine in, 69

nuclear power and, 147, 148

nuclear weapons and, 317, 318, 320

populism and, 338–9, 341

poverty and, 79

rights, declaration of, 411

Second French War of Religion, 484n77

secularization and, 436, 437

social spending in, 108, 109

suicide and, 278

terrorism and, 219

Francis, Pope, 97, 122, 129, 142

Frankfurt, Harry, 98–9

Franklin, Benjamin, 359

Frank, Robert, 124

freedom

anxiety and, 285

happiness in relation to, 265–6, 271

hierarchy of needs and, 224

of modernity, 284–5

negative vs. positive, 265

to screw up your life, 344

See also democracy; emancipative values

freedom of religion, 417

freedom of speech

bioethics violating, 402

education and appreciation for, 235

as emancipative value, 224

populism and devaluing of, 333

as remedy for cognitive biases, 28, 202, 353, 390

utilitarianism and, 417

wealth of countries and, 96

freedom of the press, 336

Friedman, Milton, 119

Friends of the Earth, 465n76

Fukushima accident (2011), 146

Fukuyama, Francis, 201, 203

Furman, Jason, 117

Gaddafi, Muammar, 447

Galbraith, John Kenneth, 206

Galileo, 24

Galton, Francis, 399

Galtung, John, 41

game theory, 164, 386

See also Hobbesian trap (security dilemma); pacifist’s dilemma; Tragedy of the Commons

Gandhi, Indira, 131

Gandhi, Mohandas, 405, 418. See also nonviolent resistance

Gapminder (Web site), xviii, 52

Gates, Bill, 66, 67, 330, 481n16

gay rights. See homosexuality and homophobia

GDP (Gross Domestic Product), 85, 95–6, 461n7

carbon emissions per dollar of, 143, 143

emancipative values as correlated with, 228

Flynn effect as increasing, 242, 244–5

and global well-being, 245–6, 246, 473n45

happiness as increasing with, 269–71, 269, 272

information technology invisible in, 332–3

misleading, potentially. See paradox of value

quality of life and, 95

social spending as percentage of, 107–8, 108, 110, 483n39

Gelman, Andrew, 342

gender. See sex differences

General Social Survey, 273, 288

generational effects. See cohort effects

Generation X, 225

depression and, 476n74

digital technology and, 244

happiness and, 273

suicide and, 280

genetically modified organisms, 77–8, 331

genetics

behavioral genetics, and literary scholarship, 407

individuality of, 25

medical and behavioral, vs. eugenics, 399–400

genocide, 160–62, 161, 397, 466–7nn14,16

gentle commerce. See under commerce

Georgia (country), 86, 203, 335

Georgia (state), capital punishment in, 211

Germany

and authoritarian charismatic regimes, 343

Berlin Wall, 163, 200–201, 203

East and West, 91, 202

and escape from poverty, 85

literacy in, 236

nuclear power and, 147

populism and, 341

romantic militarism/nationalism of, 165–6, 398

secularization and, 489n68

social spending in, 108, 115

Trump and, 336

woman as leader of, 214

Get Smart (TV), 300

Ghitza, Yair, 342

Gide, André, 446

GI Generation, 225

depression and, 280–81

secularization and, 437

suicide and, 280

Glazer, Nathan, 274

Gleditsch, Nils Petter, 455n19, 466n6, 470n4, 490n91

Global Burden of Disease project, 59, 467n13

Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism, 435, 489n65

globalization, 120

consumption and, 117

and economic inequality, 103–4, 111

and Great Escape from poverty, 92

and income distribution, global, 111–13, 111

lower middle classes of the rich world as losing out in, 112, 113, 118–19, 339, 340

Trump’s power limited via realities of, 337–8

women in workforce and, 93–4

and working conditions, 92–3, 94

Global Terrorism Database, 192, 193

Global Zero, 315–17, 320–21

goal-directed behaviors, 21–2. See also purpose, absence of in nature

Gobineau, Arthur de, 398

God

anthropomorphic, reason and rejection of, 8

arguments for the existence of, refuted, 421

deism, 8, 18, 22, 422, 430

pantheism, 8, 422

as testable hypothesis, 422, 423, 428

See also religion; theism and theistic morality

Golden Rule, 412

Goldman, Emma, 400

Goldstein, Joshua, 160, 429

Goldstein, Rebecca Newberger, xix, 421, 429, 455nn4,7, 456n17, 474n7, 485n104, 487nn3,5, 488nnn32,42,45, 489n54

Goodman, Paul, 456n1

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

Gopnik, Adam, 408

Gorbachev, Mikhail, 316

Gordon, Robert, 329

Gore, Al, 122, 145–6, 255, 382, 465n76

Goths, 398

Gottschall, Jonathan, 408

Gould, Stephen Jay, 394, 486n32

government

climate change response, role in, 141, 145–6, 148, 149–50, 152

economic inequality amelioration by, 119

Enlightenment ideal of, 12

environmental protection, role in, 133–4, 136

evidence-based policy (behavioral insights), 381

famine exacerbated by, 78, 459nn35–36

nurturing role of, 108

regulations, 90, 335

regulations compatible with markets, 364, 365

terrorism, overreactions to, 197

theocracy, 201

utilitarian principles for, 416–17, 418

vehicle safety regulations, 177–8

violent crime rates and legitimacy of, 174

voice in, and emancipative values, 224

workplace safety regulations, 186, 187

See also authoritarian governments; colonial governments; communism; democracy; fascism; freedom; human rights; imperialism; postcolonial governments

Graduated Reciprocation in Tension-Reduction (GRIT), 318, 320, 383

Grass, Günter, 447

gravitas market, 49, 293, 452

Gray, John, 191

Grayling, A. C., 455n4, 484n56, 487n1

Great Britain. See England; United Kingdom

Great Convergence, 85, 90–96, 364, 459n16

Great Depression, 170, 273

Great Escape, 54

becoming Great Convergence, 85, 459n16

capitalism and, 90–91, 364

energy capture and, 24

See also poverty; wealth

Great Leveling/Great Compression, 106, 118

great powers, definition of, 157

Great Recession (financial crisis of 2008)

and disposable incomes/poverty rates, 115, 116

economic inequality and, 97, 112

homicide rate falling during, 170–71

recovery from, 115, 116, 273

suicide rate rise since, 280

Greece, ancient. See classical Greece and Rome

Greece, modern, 108, 200

Greene, Brian, 425

Greene, Graham, 447

Greene, Joshua, 417

Greenpeace, 465n76

Green Revolution, 75–8

Gross World Product, 80–81, 81, 329, 481n13

carbon emissions plateau despite increasing, 144

economic stagnation and, 328, 480n7

as underestimate of prosperity, 81–2

Grüntzig, Andreas, 64

Guatemala, leftist guerrillas in, 158

guinea worm, 65

gun legislation, 176

Guyana, suicide and, 278

Haber, Fritz, 75, 459n18

Hadza people (Tanzania), 23, 53–4, 58, 457n4

Hafer, R. W., 244

Haider, Sarah, 442

Haidt, Jonathan, 373

Haiti, 89, 188

Hamid, Shadi, 442

Hamilton, Alexander, 13

Hammel, Andrew, 210

Hammond, Samuel, 418

Hampton, Keith, 275–6

happiness, 262–89

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 Quotient (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

and wars within Muslim-majority countries, 439

See also ISIS; terrorism and terrorists

Islamophobia, 219, 440, 441–2

anti-Islamic hate crimes, 219–20, 220

Ismail, Gululai, 443

Israel

agriculture of, 129

cyber-sabotage and, 304

happiness ranking of, 475n30

nuclear weapons and, 317, 318

and war, 313

Italy

child labor force in, 231–2, 231

emancipative values in, 225–7, 226, 227

Fascism of, 445, 446

homicide rates in, 169, 170

literacy in, 236

poverty and, 79

social spending in, 108

Jacobs, Alan, 283

Jainism, 23

Jamaica, homicide rates in, 172

Jamison, Dean, 67

Japan

education in, 237, 237, 238

emancipative values in, 225–7, 226, 227

fertility rates falling in, 125

nuclear power and, 146, 147

secularization and, 436, 489n68

social spending in, 108

and World War II, 158, 161, 196, 305, 314

Jaspers, Karl, 23

Jefferson, Thomas, 27, 95, 412, 417

Jencks, Christopher, 116

Jenner, Edward, 63, 65

Jensen, Robert, 95

Jervis, Robert, 197, 311–12

Jetsons, The, 330

Jindal, Bobby, 387

Johnson, Samuel, 162

jokes, bigoted, 217–19, 218, 471n13

Jonassohn, Kurt, 160–61

Juárez, Mexico, homicide rate in, 172

Judaism

and Axial Age, 23

humanistic branches, 412

religiosity and, 440

Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur, 167–8

and schools, development of formal, 233

Talmudic debate, 379

See also anti-Semitism

Jussim, Lee, 373

Kahan, Dan, 154, 357–8, 360–61, 366, 381, 382–3

Kahneman, Daniel, 41, 353, 383, 404

Kahn, Herman, 309

Kaku, Michio, 308

Kalahari “Bushmen” (San people), 249, 353–4

Kant, Immanuel

and arguments for the existence of God, 421

categorical imperative of, 412

as cognitive psychologist, 392

and deontology, 416

on enlightenment, 7

and human nature, 10

and irrationality of humans, 8–9, 353, 482n6

on peace, 13–14, 162, 163

on progress, 11

Kass, Leon, 60, 389

Kazakhstan, nuclear weapons relinquished by, 313

Keith, David, 153–4

Kelley, Jonathan, 101

Kellogg-Briand (Paris Peace) pact (1928), 163–4

Kellogg, Frank, 164

Kelly, Kevin, 254, 301–2, 304, 344–5, 477n20

Kelsey, Elin, 292

Kendall, Henry, 308

Kendrick, Pearl, 64

Kennedy, John F., 31, 312, 336

Kenny, Charles, 65, 95

Kenya, 54–5, 71, 71, 436

Kepler, Johannes, 424

Keynes, John Maynard, 347, 400

Khomeini, Ayatollah, 447

Khrushchev, Nikita, 312

Kim Il-sung, 447

Kim Jong-il, 78

Kim Jong-un, 313

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 223, 405

Kingston, Maxine Hong, 284

Kinzer, Stephen, 420

Kissinger, Henry, 316

Klein, Daniel, 362–3

Klein, Naomi, 138–9

knowledge, 21, 233–46

computation and, 21

populism and disdain for, 333

Trump’s disdain for, 336

unity of, as consilience of humanities and science, 390, 406–9, 486n13

See also education; literacy; reason

Knowlton, Nancy, 122

Koch, Charles and David, 139

Korean War, 49, 157, 158, 160

Kosovo, 203

Kotler, Steven, 330

Kozol, Jonathan, 456n1

Krasnow, Max, 140

Krauss, Lawrence, 308

Kristof, Nicholas, 373

Kuhn, Thomas, 395, 486n21

Kunstler, James, 465n76

Kurzweil, Ray, 60

Kuwait, 171

conquest by Iraq (1990–91), 163

Kuznets curve

carbon emissions, 143, 143

economic inequality, 103–6, 110, 111

environmental, 124, 463n9, 463n35

Kuznets, Simon, 103, 104

Kyrgyzstan, 203

labor movement, paid vacation and, 251

Lacan, Jacques, 406

Lahiri, Jhumpa, 284

Lamarckian process, 399

Landsteiner, Karl, 64

language

communication of ideas using, 27

development of, 23

Indo-European, 398

writing, 27

Lanier, Jaron, 477n20

Lankford, Adam, 196, 198

Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 24, 298

Lasch, Christopher, 456n1

Laski, Harold, 400, 418

Latin America. See South and Central America

Latinos, 239, 336

law enforcement. See police; rule of law