The Better Angels of Our Nature: 8 key ideas
The core ideas of The Better Angels of Our Nature, each in under a minute, written in our own words. Want the full depth? Get the book.
- IDEA 1 OF 8
Violence has declined over history
Pinker argues, using large amounts of data, that violence has fallen dramatically over the long run of human history.
Although wars and crimes still happen, he claims a person today is far less likely to die violently than people in most past societies.
- IDEA 2 OF 8
States reduced tribal killing
Pinker describes a pacification process: when early states formed, they reduced the constant raiding and feuding common in societies without governments.
Records from such societies suggest very high rates of violent death.
- IDEA 3 OF 8
Manners and trade calmed Europe
Pinker borrows the idea of a civilising process: as European states grew stronger and trade expanded, people learned self-control and courtesy.
Murder rates in Europe fell sharply between the Middle Ages and modern times.
- IDEA 4 OF 8
Cruel practices were abolished
Pinker describes a humanitarian revolution in the eighteenth century, when practices like torture, witch-burning and slavery were increasingly condemned and abolished.
New ideas about human dignity spread. Sympathy for strangers grew with reading and travel.
- IDEA 5 OF 8
Great-power wars have become rare
Pinker describes the Long Peace after 1945, when major powers avoided fighting each other directly.
He also notes a New Peace, with fewer wars and deaths after the Cold War.
- IDEA 6 OF 8
Rights expanded to more groups
Pinker describes rights revolutions that reduced violence against minorities, women, children and animals.
Attitudes changed in many societies. Campaigns against discrimination and cruelty changed laws and everyday attitudes in many countries.
- IDEA 7 OF 8
Inner demons still exist
Pinker identifies inner demons that drive violence, such as revenge, dominance and ideology.
These impulses remain part of human nature. Pinker does not deny our capacity for cruelty; he explains how it is restrained.
- IDEA 8 OF 8
Better angels can win
Pinker argues that empathy, self-control, moral sense and reason, our better angels, have increasingly restrained violence.
Institutions and ideas have helped these qualities grow. Trade, literacy and government have helped strengthen these better qualities.
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