The Moral Arc

How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

By: Michael Shermer

Narrated by: Michael Shermer, Melody Zownir

We are living in the most moral period of our species’ history. Best-selling author Michael Shermer’s most accomplished and ambitious book to date demonstrates how the scientific way of thinking has made people, and society as a whole, more moral. Ever since the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment thinkers consciously applied the methods of science to solve social and moral problems. The experimental methods and analytical reasoning of science created the modern world of liberal democracies, civil rights and civil liberties, equal justice under the law, open political and economic borders, free minds and free markets, and prosperity the likes of which no human society in history has ever enjoyed. More people in more places have greater rights, freedoms, liberties, literacy, education, and prosperity - the likes of which no human society in history has ever enjoyed. In this provocative and compelling book - that includes brief histories of freedom rights, women’s rights, gay rights, and animal rights, along with considerations of the nature of evil and moral regress - Shermer explains how abstract reasoning, rationality, empiricism, skepticism - scientific ways of thinking - have profoundly changed the way we perceive morality and, indeed, move us ever closer to a more just world.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2015 Michael Shermer (P)2015 Michael Shermer

Critic reviews

“...It’s an honest, clear account of morality and justice that makes those theoretical concepts come alive as ubiquitous real-life choices.” (Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-prize-winning author of the best-selling books Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, and The World Until Yesterday)

“A thrilling and fascinating book, which could change your view of human history and human destiny.” (Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University)

“Science can’t, by itself, tell you right from wrong. But there’s no better tool for the purpose than the style of moral philosophy that’s inspired by science, and Michael Shermer is a master of that style.” (Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion)