Category Archives: Book Notes

Steven Pinker: ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 2

Posted on Wednesday 17 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress” (Viking, Feb. 2018, xix+556pp, including 102pp of notes, references, and index.) The first three chapters of this book are crisp summaries of themes shared with two or three dozen other books … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker: ENLIGHTENMENT NOW, post 1

Posted on Thursday 11 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress” (Viking, Feb. 2018, xix+556pp, including 102pp of notes, references, and index.) This is the last of the ‘big’ Steven Pinker books that I’ve read but not yet written up here. Though … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, post 7

Posted on Friday 5 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Why Violence Has Declined” (Viking, Oct. 2011, xxvii + 802pp, including 106pp of notes, references, and index.) Summary: Chapter 9 concerns four ways in which humanity’s “better angels” turn people away from violence and toward cooperation and altruism. These … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Human Nature, Morality, Science, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, post 7

Steven Pinker, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, post 6

Posted on Thursday 4 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Why Violence Has Declined” (Viking, Oct. 2011, xxvii + 802pp, including 106pp of notes, references, and index.)   Summary: Chapter 8 concerns five forces that drive violence: Predation, Dominance, Revenge, Sadism, and Ideology. Humans are not innately aggressive, except … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, post 5

Posted on Wednesday 3 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Why Violence Has Declined” (Viking, Oct. 2011, xxvii + 802pp, including 106pp of notes, references, and index.) Summaries: Chapter 6, “The New Peace,” consider three types of organized violence: among groups citing “ancient hatreds,” ethnic cleansing, and terrorism. These … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, post 4

Posted on Tuesday 2 December 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Why Violence Has Declined” (Viking, Oct. 2011, xxvii + 802pp, including 106pp of notes, references, and index.) Here, a full eight years after I began, I’ll finish posting my outline and notes on Steven Pinker’s 2011 book. This is … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Social Progress, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker, THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, post 4

Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great

Posted on Tuesday 18 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “How Religion Poisons Everything” (Twelve, May 2007, 307pp, including 24pp of acknowledgements, references, and index) Here is the fourth, and last-published, of the four books by the so-called “new atheists” published in the mid-2000s. While Sam Harris was an … Continue reading →

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Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 6

Posted on Tuesday 18 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(Houghton Mifflin, Oct. 2006, 406pp, including 26pp of appendix, books cited, notes, and index) (Post 1; Post 2; Post 3; Post 4; Post 5) * Here are glosses on the Preface and 10 chapters of the book, followed by some … Continue reading →

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Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 5

Posted on Monday 17 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(Houghton Mifflin, Oct. 2006, 406pp, including 26pp of appendix, books cited, notes, and index) (Post 1; Post 2; Post 3; Post 4) * Here are notes on the final four chapters. Glosses follow in the next post. * Ch 7, … Continue reading →

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Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 4

Posted on Sunday 16 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

(Houghton Mifflin, Oct. 2006, 406pp, including 26pp of appendix, books cited, notes, and index) (Post 1; Post 2; post 3) Our chapter today is about morality, and where it comes from if not religion. We could begin with my standard arguments. … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Book Notes, Human Nature, Religion | Comments Off on Richard Dawkins, THE GOD DELUSION, post 4