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

and carbon dioxide (CO2) capture, 136, 150

deep-sea vents as biological energy source, 19

desalination of water, 129, 149

fisheries, 325

geoengineering and, 150, 152–3

marine conservation areas, 132–3, 133

sea level rise, 137, 138

species extinctions and, 463n32

Oklahoma City bombing (1995), 194

Olds, Jacqueline, 274

O’Neill, Eugene, 446

O’Neill, William, 286

Ono, Yoko, 166

On the Waterfront (film), 113

opioid overdoses, 184–5

Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 308

optimism

attacks on, 39, 49

complacent vs. conditional, 154–5

enlightenment as, 7

historical improvement as basis for, 51, 327–8

Optimism Gap, 40, 115, 225–6, 268

perceived as salesmanship, 49

rational (pessimistic hopefulness, possibilism, protopia, opti-realism), 52, 344–5, 482n55

See also pessimism

order

improbability of, 15–16, 24, 25

life as, 18–19, 20

meaning of life as creation despite entropy, 17

self-organization, 17–19

Orlando nightclub massacre, 215, 216

Orlov, Vadim Pavlovich, 479n93

Osgood, Charles, 318

Osler, William, 63

Ottoman Empire, 430, 439

Our World in Data (Web site), xviii, 52

Pacification Process, 43

pacifist’s dilemma, 166, 414, 488n10

Paddock, William and Paul, 74

Pagden, Anthony, 482n6

Pagel, Mark, 477n20

Paine, Thomas, 409

Pakistan

agriculture in, 76

climate change and, 151

as democracy, 207

and literacy, female, 239, 240

nuclear weapons and, 307–8, 317, 318, 320

polio in, 65

terrorist deaths in, 193

Palin, Sarah, 374–5

Pan-African Parliament, 222

Panama, 85, 86

pantheism, 8, 422

paradox of value (income statistics can mislead)

definition of, 82

globalization and, 117

increasing with humanism, 332–3

inequality and, 117

technology and, 117, 332–3

paranormal phenomena, 422, 427, 428

Parfit, Derek, 429

Paris, terrorism and, 219

Paris Agreement on climate, 134, 152, 335, 449

Paris Peace Pact (1928), 163–4

Parker, Dorothy, 248, 277

Parker, Theodore, 223

Pascal, Blaise, 162

Pasteur, Louis, 63

Paulsen, Pat, 332, 365

peace, 13–14, 156–66

democracy as fostering, 162–3

education as fostering, 235

as inherently worthy, 164–5, 166

peacekeeping forces, success of, 404–5

romantic militarism giving way to, 165–6

as self-reinforcing, 164

See also Long Peace; war

Peak Car, Carbon, Children, Coal, Paper, Timber, 144

Peak Farmland, 76, 144

Peak Oil, 135

Peak Stuff, 135–6

Peanuts (comic), 377

Pearl Harbor, 196

pedestrian deaths, 179–80, 179

Pelopidas, Benoît, 316

period (zeitgeist) effects, 224–5

happiness and, 272–4, 275

religious belief and, 437–8

See also age (life cycle) effects; cohort effects

permafrost, melting, 136

Perry, William, 316, 319

Persia, ancient, 23, 398

Peru, 158, 160

pessimism, 33, 39–52

about democratization, 201

about human rights, 207

about life expectancy, 53

mistaken for moral seriousness, 49

as one-upmanship, 49

and populism, xvii, 50, 343–4

about racism, sexism, and homophobia, 215

and sympathy, expansion of circle of, 49

about terrorism, 191

and Trump’s election, 340

See also fatalism; intellectuals; media; optimism; romantic heroism

—CULTURAL PESSIMISM, 33

doomsday scenarios from, 293, 294

German, 165

and happiness, lack of, 263–4, 268

and the humanities, malaise of, 406

quality of life, 247

and romantic militarism, 165–6

about science, 400

—HISTORICAL PESSIMISM, 33

and democracy, 201

and nuclear war, 308

root-causism, 169–71

petroleum

carbon-to-hydrogen ratio of, 143

deaths caused by, 146–7

new technologies for use of, 330

See also climate change; coal; energy

Pew Research Center, 216, 222

pharmaceutical drugs. See drugs, pharmaceutical

Philippines, 152, 200, 336

philosophy, 23, 433, 434

arguments lead to moral progress, 210, 409

arguments about consciousness, 425–8

arguments on reason and rationality, 8, 351–3

and consilience with science, 407

naturalism as favored position of, 392, 486n17

not divorced from empirical world, 391–2

Second Culture misconceptions of, 408–9

See also reason

photography, 257

Picasso, Pablo, 447

Pickett, Kate, 100, 101

Piketty, Thomas, 99

Pimm, Stuart, 133

Pinker, Robert, xviii

Pinker, Roslyn, xviii

Pinker, Susan, xviii, 274

Pinter, Harold, 447

plague, 80

plane crash deaths, 42, 180, 180

plane travel, democratization of, 257–8, 258

plants, energy/food production, 19, 150

Plato, 381, 421, 428–9, 431

pneumonia, childhood deaths from, 66

poison, deaths from, 182, 183–4

Poland, 201, 334, 341, 436

police

killings of African Americans, 215–16, 471n6

and violent crime reduction, 168, 173–4, 176

See also rule of law

polio, 63–4, 65

political ideologies of left and right

belief in evolution and, 356

as biased on specific polarized topics, 361–3

conservative rejection of ideal of progress, 363–4

democracy undermined by, 374

denial of climate change and, 357

eugenics and, 399–400

innumeracy on polarized topics, 360–61

irrationality of issues charged with, 381–4

journalism and, 372–3, 484n54

leftist sympathy for Marxism, 364

libertarian right extremism, 364–5

moderates, 372

nationalism and, 31

polarization increasing, 371, 374–5

populism and, 334

predictions affected by, inaccuracy of, 368, 371

rational approach to politics vs., 365–6

religion and, 31–2