This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The values of the Enlightenment played a key role in the rapid advancement of humankind on Earth

according to Stephen Pinker author of the new book Enlightenment Now. Pinker argues that life is

getting better across a wide variety of metrics and we ought to understand why.

Why write this book if I read your other books and I see that all the trend lines are in the right direction

and Enlightenment values have contributed mightily to that, why take a victory lap in pointing out how great it is?

Most people are unaware of the progress that I attribute to the Enlightenment.

People think that globally poverty is

getting worse whereas in reality is getting better they think that war is

getting more severe whereas in fact over the decades it's been it's been lessening.

So in measure after measure of human progress people actually get the sign wrong.

They think things are getting worse whereas the reality is that they're getting better.

Also, the Enlightenment project that I credit with these improvements is by no means a consensus.

There are powerful counter-enlight movements

from the academic and intellectual left,

from the political right.

So it's by no means a victory lap.

So what is the most credible claim that you would attribute to the anti-enlight

left? The most credible claim? Yeah, what do you think is the most salient

or what are the claims from the academic left that you say,

I should really think about that?

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