‘[The book] is a tale of six trends, five inner demons, four better angels and five historical forces’ (p. xxiv):
Our better angels need to overcome our inner demons. The five inner demons are predatory or instrumental violence, dominance, revenge, sadism and ideology – see chapter 8. The four better angels are empathy, self-control, moral sense and reason – see chapter 9.
Historical forces bring about historical trends and we can chart the increase in peace and the decline of violence in all aspects of society – all levels and all spheres. The six trends are: the Pacification Process (civilisations with cities and governments), the Civilisation Process (centralised authorities and commercial infrastructure), Humanitarian Revolution (reason, enlightenment and humanitarianism), the Long Peace (major powers no longer have wars), the New Peace (organised conflicts decline) and Rights Revolutions (human rights movements) – see chapters 2 to 7. The five historical forces are: Leviathan, commerce, feminisation, cosmopolitanism, escalator of reason – see chapter 10.
‘Enlightenment and interdisciplinarity ... the better angels of our nature’
The Pinker thesis can be thought of as a special case of the following argument:
A society is governed by a specific substantive culture. Better societies are governed by better specific substantive cultures. (Is there a concept of ‘better’ independent of a specific substantive culture?) Society is a system of interdependent component spheres, each distinctive and each governed by a distinctive specific substantive culture. The overall culture in society is a system of these component cultures. A better overall culture in society is a system of better component cultures. The academic study of society involves a division of labour with different disciplines focusing on different components ... and on different methodological approaches. It is sometimes argued that a proper understanding of society requires an integration of the disciplines. Humanities offers a contrasting approach to the social sciences. In social sciences, psychology focuses on the individual and the other disciplines focus on the political system, the economic system, the social and cultural system and the technological system.
Applying these general ideas to the Pinker thesis:
.(1) roughly speaking the Enlightenment is seen as a better specific substantive culture.
Pinker makes some reference to the Enlightenment with chapter 4 sections entitled ‘The Republic of Letters and Enlightenment Humanism’ and ‘Civilization and Enlightenment’.
The Index entries for Enlightenment link to autonomy; counter-Enlightenment; Holocaust; humanitarian reform; Islam; women’s rights.
The Preface, p. xxiv: ‘ Six trends (chapters 2 through 7). To give some coherence to the many developments that make up our species’ retreat from violence, I group them into six major trends. ... The third transition unfolded on the scale of centuries and took off around the time of the Age of Reason and the European Enlightenment ...’
On pages 689, 690 and 694 he talks about ‘the expanding circle’, ‘the escalator of reason’ and the forces of ‘modernity – reason, science, humanism, individual rights’.
(It pleases me too that he refers in passing to the Scottish Enlightenment!)
So I see Pinker as talking about the Enlightenment specifically and also about a broad range of developments that are loosely related to the Enlightenment.
I see this as being linked to academic disciplines particularly in the Humanities which seem sometimes to claim for themselves a Pinker-type rationale.
So one rather assertive question might be:
‘are Pinker and Humanities disciplines correct in claiming that Enlightenment ideas have led to a less violent world?’
.(2) discipline-related aspects of the Pinker thesis are:
History would examine his claims about social change.
Biology and psychology would examine his claims about the nature of individuals.
Political studies would examine his ‘pacification process’ (chapter 2) and the Leviathan (pp. 680-682).
Economics would examine his ‘gentle commerce’ (pp. 682-684).
Sociologists would examine his ‘feminization’ (pp. 684-689)
Cultural studies and literature would examine ‘the expanding circle’ and ‘the escalator of reason’ (pp. 689-692)
Geography would examine globalisation (pp. 284-288).
Technology would examine agriculture, printing ...
Philosophy would examine all these aspects.
Of these various disciplines the Pinker thesis seems to invoke history, psychology, sociology, humanities and philosophy most strongly. Sometimes these disciplines find it difficult to talk to one another. So one question might be:
‘does Pinker use each discipline in a satisfactory manner and is he successful in combining them to form a coherent thesis about society?’
Also:
‘do the disciplines themselves constitute the Enlightenment ideas that bring about a less violent world?’
Well, that is my personal take on it all. What do you think?