Meaning

Pinker is threading a careful line here between utopianism and defeatism. He rejects the pursuit of a perfect world, which he sees as a dangerous fantasy that has historically justified great violence in the name of an imagined ideal future. But he equally rejects the conclusion that because perfection is impossible, improvement is futile. The real message is that incremental, knowledge-driven progress is both achievable and meaningful, even without a final destination in sight.

Context

This line comes from Pinker's 2018 book, which makes an extended case for Enlightenment values and the progress they have enabled. A central argument of that book is that the tools of science and reason, applied consistently to human problems, have produced real gains in health, wealth, safety, and well-being across much of the world. Pinker was responding to critics on both the left and right who he believed had grown dismissive of incremental progress, either in pursuit of radical transformation or out of a general cultural pessimism about modernity.

About the author

Steven Pinker is a Harvard professor and cognitive scientist whose popular books explore the workings of the human mind and the long arc of human history. He is known for defending empirical optimism against what he considers unwarranted despair about the modern world. His writing draws on fields including psychology, history, economics, and philosophy to build a broad picture of how humanity has benefited from rational inquiry. He is also a well-known commentator on language and the craft of writing clearly.