<P> The book 's title was taken from the ending of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln 's first inaugural address . Pinker uses the phrase as a metaphor for four human motivations -- empathy , self - control , the `` moral sense , '' and reason -- that , he writes , can `` orient us away from violence and towards cooperation and altruism . '' </P>
<P> The book 's title was taken from the ending of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln 's first inaugural address . Pinker uses the phrase as a metaphor for four human motivations -- empathy , self - control , the `` moral sense , '' and reason -- that , he writes , can `` orient us away from violence and towards cooperation and altruism . '' </P>
by the better angels of our nature meaning
by the better angels of our nature meaning
a metaphor for four human motivations -- empathy , self - control , the `` moral sense , '' and reason
a metaphor for four human motivations -- empathy , self - control , the `` moral sense , '' and reason