Knowledge resistance, post-truth, authoritarian populism and fundamentalism –these threats to democracy, its institutions and the community of values are piling up all over the world. Today’s rapidly growing right-wing protest movements often draw their strength from a sense that everything was better before. But is this really true?
The Fri Tanke (Free Thought) publishing house, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Center are proud to present this autumn’s Pi-Symposium in Stockholm, featuring world-famous psychology professor Steven Pinker and Gapminder co-founder Anna Rosling.
In his new book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Professor Pinker shows that everything from public health, peace, knowledge and happiness is increasing all over the world, not as a result of any cosmic force but because of humanity’s strong and abiding faith in enlightenment ideals, reason and science. Widespread but inaccurate perceptions about the state of the world cause us to set the wrong priorities and make counterproductive decisions. A world view based on facts is necessary if we wish to resolve human challenges.
How can we correct misunderstandings and achieve a more fact-oriented perspective on the world around us? Using the globally renowned “factfulness” method, Anna Rönnlund Rosling – co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation – shows how we can break out of our misconceptions and learn to base our opinions on facts.
Two of the world’s foremost defenders of science and humanism will now meet on the stage of the Cirkus Djurgården auditorium in Stockholm, in an appeal for Enlightenment ideas in the 21st century.