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Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring sanity to our politics, our economy, and our lives Hardcover – September 23, 2014

by Joseph Heath (Author)

109

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Winner of the 2014 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

The co-author of the internationally bestselling The Rebel Sell brings us slow politics: promoting slow thought, slow deliberation and slow debate

The political systems of the western world have become increasingly divided—not between right and left, but between crazy and non-crazy, mainstream politics and populism. What’s more, the crazies seem to have the upper hand. The rapid-fire pace of modern politics, the hypnotic repetition of daily news items and even the multitude of visual sources of information all make it difficult for the voice of reason to be heard.

In Enlightenment 2.0, bestselling author Joseph Heath argues for a new “slow politics.” It is impossible to restore sanity merely by being sane and trying to speak in a reasonable tone of voice. The only way to restore sanity is by engaging in collective action against the social conditions that have crowded it out. In prose as accessible as that of Malcolm Gladwell and as robustly researched as Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, Heath offers us a roadmap through today's troubled political landscape.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper
Publication date

September 23, 2014
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0062342894
ISBN-13

978-0062342898
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Joseph Heath
11
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From the Back Cover

Over the last twenty years, the political systems of the western world have become increasingly divided-not between right and left, but between crazy and non-crazy. What’s more, the crazies seem to be gaining the upper hand. Rational thought cannot prevail in the current social and media environment, where elections are won by appealing to voters’ hearts rather than their minds. The rapid-fire pace of modern politics, the hypnotic repetition of daily news items and even the multitude of visual sources of information all make it difficult for the voice of reason to be heard.

In Enlightenment 2.0, bestselling author Joseph Heath outlines a program for a second Enlightenment. The answer, he argues, lies in a new “slow politics.” It takes as its point of departure recent psychological and philosophical research, which identifies quite clearly the social and environmental preconditions for the exercise of rational thought. It is impossible to restore sanity merely by being sane and trying to speak in a reasonable tone of voice. The only way to restore sanity is by engaging in collective action against the social conditions that have crowded it out.

About the Author

JOSEPH HEATH is director of the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto, as well as professor in the department of philosophy and the School of Public Policy and Governance. He is the author of five books, including The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t Be Jammed (with Andrew Potter) and Filthy Lucre: Economics for People Who Hate Capitalism. He lives in Toronto.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper (September 23, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062342894
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062342898
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.34 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,296,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,079 in Political Commentary & Opinion

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Jim Preston

Superb Work of Political Philosophy for a Popular Audience

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2015

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The only thing I don't like about "Enlightenment 2.0" is the title. This would have been a cringe-worthy, outdated title in 2010. However, if you can look past that, this book was an amazingly entertaining and thoughtful discussion of a topic that should be of anyone interested in political discourse regardless of your personal beliefs.

The major contributions of this book include:

- Carefully surveying much of the recent literature by Haidt, Gladwell, Brooks and others (Josh Greeen's "Moral Tribes", however, doesn't rate a mention) on bias and moral cognition and how the argument to privilege the sub-rational parts of the brain are troublesome

- Kicking the hell out of David Brooks for columns and books that I think we can all agree are, to use Heath's terms, "vulgar romanticism."

- Thoughtfully and carefully tracing the rise of anti-rationalism on both the Left and the Right from the waning days of the Enlightenment to the present day

- Fascinating discussions on "kluges" throughout the book, ranging all the way from simple biological exaptations to the environment, all they way up to discussion of inflation and monetary policy of modern central banks. There is a fractal nature to Heath's argumentation, earned by years of training and reading, that puts him head and shoulders above other writers

- The central insight is that the Enlightenment practiced a hyper-individualistic concept of rationality but that this view is incomplete. Living in an age of neurophilosophy, behavioral economics, and mountains of psychological data, we now know that rationality exists in a "scaffolded" environment where ready-to-hand shortcuts of reasoning already linger in the environment. This is one the great insights of the book and the bases for Heath's concept of new, more scientifically-informed version of Enlightenment rationality

- This book is blissfully free of jargon. There's no need to puff up one's writing by salting in Greek and Latin phrases when plain language like "bulls***," "insane," and "plain old crazy" correctly identify current problems.

- I now know what the word "apophenia" means (seeing patterns in random or meaningless data) and now wonder where its been all my life

- There are many quite funny parts of the book, including references to "home made Nigerian helicopters," "the Onion," crazy cults, the caps on liquid laundry detergents, Jon Stewart and more. Some very fun parts in here, including the author owning up to his own biases

- Evenhanded. Like in Heath's other books, particularly Filthy Lucre, he is not afraid to scold both the left and the right. Thomas Jefferson, '60s era leftism, feminism, and modern democrats all get a good punch to the gut. Likewise, Edmund Burke, modern conservatism, Fox news, and the current sad state of the Republican party all get a face of cold water.

- As a result of all of this, Enlightenment 2.0 is not only more thoughtful than any other current book on the topic, is more thoroughly argued, researched, and stylishly written than any other single work of political philosophy in the last several years

The only thing that can be ill said of this book is that it proposes weak solutions to the problems identified. Others have picked up on this fault (the Marginal Revolution web site in particular) and Heath has begun to respond to his critics. And like his critics, I would like to see bolder thinking on these issues. After spending several hundred pages arguing for the need of input from "enlightened 2.0" experts exactly like himself, the reader is then sitting upright in her chair, napkin tied around her neck, knife and fork in hand, plate at the ready...and only a few green peas are served. Hopefully, the next book will offer more steak.

18 people found this helpful

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Model T

I am very glad to have read this book

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2016

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I am very glad to have read this book. You should too, because Dr. Heath has done a truly masterful job of explaining how Donald Trump won the US presidency, even though he was writing in 2014. He even predicted the use of Twitter as a weapon of mass destruction.
But I also find myself frustrated by it, because in common with nearly all of the books of this type, the problem is very well, one might say exhaustively, identified, but the solution proposed is not up to the same standard.
It is very true that the crazies have taken over US politics, and threaten to take over politics in much of the rest of the European based world. Dr. Heath makes it very clear how they did it – they manipulated voters who relied on intuition, instead of reason, to make their choice. But the news that most voters in a democratic system will use their intuition as the basis for their voting decisions, and that intuition is badly flawed, is hardly new: “…democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike. “ –Plato, Republic. Modern politicians have also been aware of this: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." – Winston Churchill.
Dr. Heath feels that the way to solve this problem is to make sure that everyone is nudged by subtle changes in the environment to act rationally – thus the book’s title, “Enlightenment 2.0”. The problem is, he doesn’t explain what would motivate those in power, particularly those now in power, to do this.
I submit that the solution is not to try to get everyone to act more rationally; it is to ensure that those who can act rationally are good people. The reason why Donald Trump is now the president of the United States is that too many among the country’s elites are not good people. They are selfish and greedy, grabbing more and more of the world’s wealth each year, and very effectively resisting any effort to make them share it, despite the fact that there is no possible way they could need so much of it.
What is a good person? It is easier to tell than you might think. A good person is someone who doesn’t do to other people what they would not want done to themselves. At least this is the way Confucius explained it in the earliest recorded version of what has become known as the Golden Rule. People of European origin usually associate the Rule with the teachings of Jesus, but it is far more universal than that. You will find it in all of the world’s major religions and ethical systems, as the briefest review of the Wikipedia article on the topic will show you.
What has persuaded people to be good in the past? The answer is obvious. They believed that there was something very important out there that really wanted them to. In the European world this something is called God. Dr. Heath doesn’t believe in God. As a good academically trained philosopher, he is a child of the Enlightenment. His faith position is that Reason is all powerful, and that the world is random and meaningless. I use the word “faith” here because he has no way of proving either of these dogmas are true.
He believes there is nothing that Reason cannot accomplish. He even says that the Golden Rule is derived from reason. This is odd, because our modern high priests, the economists, start from exactly the opposite position. They believe that the only pure selfishness is rational.
The Enlightenment was the era when belief in God began to be eroded. The method used was one suggested by Dr. Heath to combat manipulation by despots – laugh at them. Dr. Heath even quotes some of the caricatures of David Hume – “maybe this world was made by an infant god, who gave it up because he was embarrassed by it”, “maybe it was made by a senile god”.
Dr. Heath believes that the only alternative to rationalism is irrationalism. It seems he, and other atheists, never consider that the God entity, as the creator of the universe, must be very different from us. It can obviously be neither a person, nor a place, nor a thing, since all of these are created. They believe that it does not exist because they can’t understand it. But why should they think that human reason is up to this?
My dog thinks she has the world pretty well figured out, and for her purposes she does. But when I try to discuss Plato with her, I get nowhere. Why should we assume that our powers of thought, even at their highest, are not similarly limited?
Religion has always been a matter of experience, the experience of millions upon millions of people for hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years. The Golden Rule is the product of this experience, and it is the chief source of whatever growth in kindness that has occurred over the centuries. Reason is only an optional extra to experience where religion is concerned; usually giving more trouble than it is worth.
So how do we encourage the elites to follow the Golden Rule? We could make it a more prominent part of the world’s discussion. Karen Armstrong did this a few years ago with her Charter for Compassion, a TED funded project. But I think a better first step is to recognize that capacity to think of others, like so many human qualities, is not something that is equally part of the makeup of everyone. At the far low end of capacity for empathy are the psychopaths. These people lack a conscience, lie frequently and easily, are extremely good at manipulating others, and have a tremendous sense of their own entitlement. They are a small part of the population, but the higher you go in any organization the more of them you will find. The condition is detectable by genetic analysis as well as by psychological testing. These people should be kept from power.
Finally, I think it is time to give up the Enlightenment as a failure. Faith in reason and blind chance alone, besides denying the reality of a ubiquitous human experience, has opened the way for the psychopaths to take over the world.
And, as Bertrand Russel once said, the foundation of atheism is unyielding despair. It is time to move on to a more life enhancing faith.
Suggested Reading: Atheist Delusions David Bentley Hart.
https://www.amazon.ca/Atheist-Delusions-Christian-Revolution-Fashionable/dp/0300164297

4 people found this helpful

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Nathan Shachar

Back to Reason

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2015

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Another great read by a most versatile Philosopher. He has already busted the myths and pretensions of counterculture ("A Nation of Rebels", written with Andrew Potter), and of leftist economics and rightist economics ("Economics without Illusions") with flair and humour. This book is about finding new foundations for Rationalism and Enlightenment instead of the classic assumptions of the great 17th and 18th century pioneers, assumptions often incompatible with what we now know about the mind and its approach to different kinds of problem-solving. A persuasive and important effort.

2 people found this helpful

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Eli Vieira

Reason duly championed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2017

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What is reason? Why do we have a culture where we are constantly bombarded by annoying ads? What do we do to have a more rational politics, as the founding fathers of the Enlightenment envisioned? This book provides answers to these and other questions, with varying degrees of satisfaction (I was particularly delighted with the description of reason informed by empirical work in psychology). He starts the book with the anecdote of Jon Stewart's and Stephen Colbert's rally for sanity in politics, but is even-handed in pointing out how both the right and the left have abandoned reason, being incentivised by greater irrational winds in Western culture that are arguably greater than politics itself. This is not, however, a book about politics. For those convinced there was never an Enlightenment or that the thinkers that founded it were guided by a naive insistence on unachiveable utopia, a good definition of what is the Enlightenment and what its critics got right is also provided. This book is amazingly prescient of our Trump times, also. Couldn't recommend it more. And after reading it you'll want more from Heath.

One person found this helpful

Snoopy

This book should be required reading.

Reviewed in Canada on July 12, 2014

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This book should be required reading for anyone interested in understanding the root causes of our current political divide and what we can do about it. It is also an ideal book for those who want to understand the human cognitive biases that underlie so much of our poor decisions that have consequences both at an individual level and politically. In another very accessible book, Heath once again displays his superb writing ability, excellent analysis, and his mastery of a variety of subjects from human psychology, economics to public policy. In other words, he is a very well-read academic. I have read Heath's previous book “Filthy Lucre” and was very impressed by his strong grasp of economic concepts, insightful analysis and not to mention his lively writing style that connects well with the general audience, not just those in specific academic disciplines. I was expecting no less when I picked up this book.

Like in "Filthy Lucre", the author tries to strike a good political balance. Although his two consecutive books have political elements to them, the author remains as a neutral observer. In “Enlightenment 2.0”, the author attributes our tendency to think irrationally to the various human cognitive biases - the mental shortcuts we take to avoid thinking through difficult issues whether in politics or in our everyday life. Wherever you stand politically, the point is that both progressives and conservatives have benefited tremendously from our human tendency to exercise the intuitive side of our thought processes. What we all have in common is that desire to sell our products or political slogans by appealing to that ancient side of the human brain. There are certain parts of the books that may be debatable. The most controversial part of this book is when he blames common-sense conservatism, at least in its form in Canada, for ignoring statistics and facts and elevating one type or morality over another. Here is where I believe many will quibble with the author's argument. He picks out a few examples in Canadian history to support his thesis. This may be the more vulnerable part of the book. While the progressives like to see themselves as the beacon of rationality, the author also credits traditional conservatives for upholding mechanisms of self-control through tough criminal laws and traditional marriage. But he does not let the progressives off the hook easily because it is only under the liberals with their relaxed standards that our traditional forms of self-control have broken down. Self-control is an important step towards rationality. In this regard, we are not any more rational under the liberals than we are under the conservatives.

Regardless, the last part of the book, possibly the most important, is his solution to a world filled with cognitive biases exacerbated by 24-hour news cycles and partisan commentators. Contrary to the thinking of libertarians and conservatives, paternalistic legislation may not be a bad idea if the objective is to structure an environment where we can be nudged away from cognitive biases. Because we cannot rid ourselves of these biases because it takes twice as long for our brains to think more rationally, perhaps we can manipulate the environment in such a way as to make it conducive to sound decision-making, and we can accomplish this without even trying to think hard. Here is the most brilliant part of the book. Strip away our political biases (the thought of a big nanny state is horrifying to libertarians), we will actually see the rationality behind Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on large sugary drinks. Of course, there are many overreaching, nonsensical laws and in this case, libertarians are absolutely right to stand up for their individual rights. The world need not be painted in black and white as the political pundits would have you believe. We just need to work together to create a hospitable environment where reason has a chance of survival.

The book reminds me of a combination of Jon Haidt (The Righteous Mind), Daniel Kahneman (Thinking Fast and Slow) and Cass Sunstein (Nudge: Improving Decision about Health, Wealth and Happiness). Heath does an excellent job of integrating the ideas of these scholars into an intellectually accessible book for all readers. The book excerpts in the National Post first caught my attention and eventually, I bought the book because I know I will really enjoy keeping it on my bookshelf. This book should be a best seller. It is going right up there next to Daniel Kahneman in my library. I have thoroughly enjoyed both Filthy Lucre and Enlightenment 2.0 and certainly hope to hear more from this author in the near future.

8 people found this helpful

Paul Tauberg

Very interesting and rich in facts

Reviewed in Canada on May 25, 2014

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Enlightenment 2.0 by Joseph Heath makes for very enjoyable reading.

Right from the beginning the author grabs our attention with a couple of very interesting assertions.

The first is that the functionally of our brain has essentially two speeds. One that is quick and intuitive, a collection of cognitive biases geared for survival, very much similar with what is happening in the brains of our primate relatives. The second speed is provided by our unique ability to reason. Rationality has apparently developed in humans as an exaptation, an evolutionary mutation that did not initially provided any survival advantages, but was carried along through the evolutionary stages. Rationality is slow, hard to apply and requires a lot of motivation.

Fast forward now to the philosophers of pre-revolutionary France, the fathers of the Enlightenment 1.0. They got so much in love with rationality that they declared it the solution of all humankind ills. All our problems can be solved if we can use our brains in a rational way and get rid of our primitive biases. According to Joseph Heath they got carried away in a very dangerous way. From a certain angle, and despite the overall positive effect of the Enlightenment, many of the disasters that follow, the wars, the horrors perpetrated by Stalin and Hitler, and others can be laid at the feet of the overly enthusiast philosophers who underestimated the resilience of the biases inherent in the human brain.

To make amends the author suggests we embark on a quest to build a new, wiser Enlightenment 2.0. To be successful we need first of all to think somehow slower, to allow our rational side to prevail over our intuitive side. Also we can trick our ingrained biases using "kludges" which can be defined as inelegant but effective solutions to counteract our instincts. Examples:
You feel like eating a lot of bread. Rational will power is no match for your appetite. Better do not buy bread so you are not going to find it in the cupboard when you crave it.
Also some of us feel that we still have racial prejudices that embarrass us and we would like to get rid of. No amount of educational speeches will cure our ancestral pattern recognition based biases. A better approach is to create less dangerous artificial animosities that will overpower the original ones. Yankees vs. Mets is a good example; the rivalry is colour blind, quite intense and inoffensive.

All this made a lot of sense to me although I did not understand how by themselves thinking slow and applying kludges will achieve our ambitious goal. Who will build our Enlightenment 2.0? Who will be our Diderot or our Rousseau? In fairness, Jon Stewart is mentioned as a strong candidate for Voltaire. 2.0.

Despite these questions, I can say that I spent a couple of very rewarding hours reading this book. It is very well written and provides the reader with a wealth of information in fields as diverse as anthropology, psychology, history, physics and more. I highly recommend it to anybody interested in how we humans think and what is behind the multitude of decisions we make every day.

11 people found this helpful

Rev Canon Patrick Towers

though with gratitude to the great thinkers of the Enlightenment

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 14, 2015

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For one who spends his life in the world of religious belief, though with gratitude to the great thinkers of the Enlightenment, I was heartened and challenged by Joseph Heath's timely book. Its fine reminder of the anchoring value of Reason in a time of wild beliefs,insights that are plucked from prejudices and those dangerous bog holes of biases into which those like me can often sink. I am determined now to bring more rigour to my thinking.

M. S. Hutchinson

A riposte to the appalling political leadership we have across the world.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2021

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Well written, well argued and we'll timed. A book that should be read to the political leadership in the West particularly. A cogent plea for intelligent sanity.

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