(P/B) THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE

Παρουσίαση

This acclaimed book by Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct and The Blank Slate, argues that, contrary to popular belief, humankind has become progressively less violent, over millenia and decades. Can violence really have declined? The images of conflict we see daily on our screens from around the world suggest this is an almost obscene claim to be making. Extraordinarily, however, Steven Pinker shows violence within and between societies - both murder and warfare - really has declined from prehistory to today. We are much less likely to die at someone else's hands than ever before. Even the horrific carnage of the last century, when compared to the dangers of pre-state societies, is part of this trend. Debunking both the idea of the 'noble savage' and an over-simplistic Hobbesian notion of a 'nasty, brutish and short' life, Steven Pinker argues that modernity and its cultural institutions are actually making us better people. (From the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

List of Figures
Preface
A FOREIGN COUNTRY
Human Prehistory
Homeric Greece
The Hebrew Bible
The Roman Empire and Early Christendom Medieval Knights
Early Modern Europe
Honor in Europe and the Early United States
The 20th Century
THE PACIFICATION PROCESS
The Logic of Violence
Violence in Human Ancestors
Kinds of Human Societies
Rates of Violence in State and Nonstate Societies Civilization and Its Discontents
THE CIVILIZING PROCESS
The European Homicide Decline
Explaining the European Homicide Decline Violence and Class
Violence Around the World
Violence in These United States
Decivilization in the 1960s
Recivilization in the 1990s
THE HUMANITARIAN REVOLUTION
Superstitious Killing: Human Sacrifice, Witchcraft, and Blood Libel
Superstitious Killing: Violence Against Blasphemers, Heretics, and Apostates
Cruel and Unusual Punishments
Capital Punishment
Slavery
Despotism and Political Violence
Major War
Whence the Humanitarian Revolution?
The Rise of Empathy and the Regard for Human Life
The Republic of Letters and Enlightenment Humanism
Civilization and Enlightenment
Blood and Soil
THE LONG PEACE
Statistics and Narratives
Was the 20th Century Really the Worst?
The Statistics of Deadly Quarrels, Part 1: The Timing of Wars
The Statistics of Deadly Quarrels, Part 2: The Magnitude of Wars
The Trajectory of Great Power War The Trajectory of European War
The Hobbesian Background and the Ages of Dynasties and Religions
Three Currents in the Age of Sovereignty
Counter-Enlightenment Ideologies and the Age of Nationalism
Humanism and Totalitarianism in the Age of Ideology
The Long Peace: Some Numbers
The Long Peace: Attitudes and Events
Is the Long Peace a Nuclear Peace?
Is the Long Peace a Democratic Peace?
Is the Long Peace a Liberal Peace?
Is the Long Peace a Kantian Peace?
THE NEW PEACE
The Trajectory of War in the Rest of the World
The Trajectory of Genocide
The Trajectory of Terrorism
Where Angels Fear to Tread
THE RIGHTS REVOLUTIONS
Civil Rights and the Decline of Lynching and Racial Pogroms
Women's Rights and the Decline of Rape and Battering
Children's Rights and the Decline of Infanticide, Spanking, Child Abuse, and Bullying
Gay Rights, the Decline of Gay-Bashing, and the Decriminalization of Homosexuality
Animal Rights and the Decline of Cruelty to Animals
Whence the Rights Revolutions?
From History to Psychology
INNER DEMONS
The Dark Side
The Moralization Gap and the Myth of Pure Evil
Organs of Violence
Predation
Dominance
Revenge
Sadism
Ideology
Pure Evil, Inner Demons, and the Decline of Violence
BETTER ANGELS
Empathy
Self-Control
Recent Biological Evolution?
Morality and Taboo
Reason
ON ANGELS' WINGS
Important but Inconsistent
The Pacifist's Dilemma
The Leviathan
Gentle Commerce
Feminization
The Expanding Circle
The Escalator of Reason
Reflections
Notes
References
Index