2 Matching Annotations
- Nov 2021
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www.newyorker.com www.newyorker.com
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the broad assurance that history has a shape and a direction.
It has as post-factum. But, history does not have a shape and a direction as pre-designed feature.
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The first asserts that everything has been on the upswing since the Enlightenment, when we learned that rational argument was preferable to religious superstition and wanton cudgelling.
Pinker is very naive to shape religious only around superstition. The englightement has not resolved the main open question of humans - how to deal with death and to lesser extend happiness and overall personal fulfilment.
It does not mean that we should abandon a great achievements of the Enlightenment. But, we should be only clear what rationality can help us with and what it cannot help us with.
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