Reviews

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker

gordin's review against another edition

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5.0

Deep, insightful, logical.

aspiring_learner's review against another edition

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5.0

This book reshaped my view of the world more than any other. Violence has declined throughout history. These declines aren't driven by magic. They're driven by scientific and social advances through the ages that have been driven by people for very human reasons.

Want a profound basis for hope in the modern world? Try staring down the specter of all human brutality throughout all of history. When you emerge from the crucible, you will understand the profound advances that we've made. By the end, you'll hopefully understand what worked to reduce violence and why - key clues that we'll need if we're going to continue making our world better.

This is the still my #1 recommended book.

nilyk's review against another edition

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hopeful informative

4.0

jasperburns's review against another edition

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4.0

View my best reviews and a collection of mental models at jasperburns.blog.

sozh's review against another edition

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5.0

Epic! Also epically long. V thought provoking.

bellamonster's review against another edition

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4.0

A tedious read (especially for those who don't love stats), but also incredibly well thought-out and convincing.

yates9's review against another edition

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3.0

Lots of gory detail on violence of the past and a generally convincing thesis in good style... Yes, we are not as violent, not in the same way, as a society.

However I would have preferred of the book was shorter and more to the point. I walk away with lots of extra visions of medieval torture that I had managed to avoid to date.

amahid's review against another edition

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5.0

Pinker's sober,well- reasoned arguments which are backed with empirical evidence from data and psychology experiments, makes the case that our better angels have been winning and we are moving towards a more peaceful society, and any nostalgia for the past, echoed so loudly by some public intellectuals, is a misjudgment.

mahir007's review against another edition

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5.0

يعتمد فهمنا لعنف ما قبل التاريخ على المصادفة التي تم فيها تحنيط الجثث أو تحجرها بالصدفة ، وبالتالي يجب أن يكون غير مكتمل جذريًا. ولكن بمجرد أن بدأت اللغة المكتوبة بالانتشار ، ترك لنا القدامى معلومات أفضل حول كيفية إدارة شؤونهم.

تُعد إلياذة هوميروس والأوديسة من أوائل الأعمال العظيمة للأدب الغربي ، وتحتل المرتبة الأولى في العديد من الأدلة الخاصة بمحو الأمية الثقافية. على الرغم من أن هذه الروايات تم وضعها في وقت حرب طروادة حوالي 1200 قبل الميلاد ، فقد تم تدوينها بعد ذلك بكثير ، بين 800 و 650 قبل الميلاد ، ويُعتقد أنها تعكس الحياة بين القبائل والجماعات في شرق البحر الأبيض المتوسط ​​في تلك الحقبة.
غالبًا ما يقرأ المرء اليوم أن الحرب الشاملة ، التي تستهدف مجتمعًا بأكمله بدلاً من مجرد قواته المسلحة ، هي اختراع حديث. تم إلقاء اللوم - في موضوع ظهور الحرب الشاملة - على ظهور الدول القومية ، وعلى الأيديولوجيات العالمية ، وعلى التقنيات التي تسمح بالقتل عن بعد. ولكن إذا كانت صور هوميروس دقيقة (وتتماشى مع علم الآثار والإثنوغرافيا والتاريخ) ، فإن الحروب في اليونان القديمة كانت شاملة مثل أي شيء آخر في العصر الحديث. يشرح أجامنون للملك مينلاوس خططه للحرب:
مينيلوس ، أخي الرقيق ، لماذا أنت قلق جدًا على هؤلاء الرجال؟ هل عاملك أهل طروادة بطريقة رائعة عندما كانوا في قصرك؟ لا ... لن نترك واحدًا منهم على قيد الحياة ، حتى الأطفال في أرحام أمهاتهم - لا يجب أن يعيشوا . يجب أن يُمحى الشعب كله من الوجود ، ولا يُترك أحد منهم ليفكر أو ليذرف دمعة!!
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Steven Pinker
The Better Angels Of Our Nature
Translated By #Maher_Razouk

rymdkejsaren's review against another edition

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2.0

Well. I am changing my review of this after having read about half of Rutger Bregman's Humankind, a Hopeful History. Although Better Angels still contains a lot of interesting information, some of it which no doubt still holds water, I would be dubious about trusting anything that man has written outside of this field considering the egregious errors and oversights he made with his data collection for this book.

It seems that for all he's such an ardent proponent of reason, he has yet to learn the difference between reason and rationalisation. Do better, Steven Pinker.