The Better Angels of Our Nature
Pinker argues that several forms of violence declined over long periods, while examining institutions and motives associated with that change.
The book compares patterns across distinct kinds of violence.
A historical rate and an individual's suffering answer different questions. Pinker's argument about trends should not make a present harm seem small to the person experiencing it.
Long-run trends are separated from short-term fluctuations.
State formation can reduce some forms of private conflict.
Commerce and interdependence can change incentives for cooperation.
Empathy and expanding rights alter whose suffering receives recognition.
An explanation of improvement is not a guarantee of continued improvement. Institutions, incentives, and habits matter precisely because people can damage them, and historical comparisons remain open to dispute.
Reason and self-control are discussed alongside destructive motives.
A declining rate does not make individual harms unimportant.
Historical data and causal interpretations remain contested.
The argument does not guarantee that future progress is inevitable.
Its central claim concerns explainable change rather than an unchanging violent essence.
Its central claim concerns explainable change rather than an unchanging violent essence.
If some violence has declined, which institutions helped, and what could undo that change?