"We seem to be suffering from a decline in human self-confidence and in our ability to create ethically meaningful lives," says the author in the prologue of this book. Much of the blame he places on forces opposed to humanism but some recognized humanists have contributed to the problem. He calls for a renewed focus on the goals of the Enlightenment Philosophies: reason, freedom, and science. Bookchin makes some strong statements contrasting "science" and "scientism." He defines "science" as disciplines dealing with external realities that can be systematized into verifiable, testable, and predictable laws while "scientism" deals with speculative theories of human activities. He then claims that E. O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins and Paul Ehrlich are posing as scientist but practicing scientism! His challenge of these sacred personages of humanism will keep your attention and generate some serious thinking regarding his conclusions concerning the human evolutionary biological and sociological potential.

--Flo Wineriter