Reason is natural revelation. – John Locke
Aufklärung is der Ausgang des Menschen selbstverschuldeten Unmundigkeit: Enlightenment is Man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. – Immanuel Kant.
The word Enlightenment is a translation from the German Aufklärung. It came to be used in 18th century Europe to express a (then) revolutionary approach to history, knowledge, governments, and values that was emerging from the writings of a few philosophers in 16th and 17th century Europe. It brought about dramatic changes in many Western societies, and has been spilling over in varying degrees to the world at large.
Human beings entertain a variety of ideas, opinions, and visions about the physical world, society, the human condition, the beyond. One important factor here is emotional attachment to one’s cultural appendages: language, religion, music, and ethical framework. These tend to generate feelings of uniqueness, even superiority. When one encounters differing or contrary perspectives confrontations, conflicts, persecutions, and even war could ensue. One goal of the Enlightenment is to minimize these.
Another key idea in the Enlightenment is that valid knowledge arises only through reason and the scientific method. Unscientific propositions about the natural world must be rejected. At the same time people should be allowed to express different perspectives on social, political, and religious matters. What this means is that there should be freedom of thought and expression. This fosters cultural, ideological, and religious diversity. Diversity is possible only by adopting the principle of tolerance: allowing even one’s fiercest opponents to air their views, with the hope that those views will be guided by reason..
Enlightenment fosters liberalism, a political philosophy that calls for liberty and equality for all citizens and for all the peoples of the world. Liberalism affirms that the government has responsibility towards its less fortunate citizens. It calls for republicanism. By definition, a Republic (Latin: re publicum Public Thing) is a State in which citizens, not monarchs, nobility, landed gentry, despots, or religious institution hold the power to rule.
When Enlightenment emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries its leading thinkers were confident that all nations and societies would progress, i.e. continue to advance from an unenlightened state to the enlightened one, and that the world at large would move from pre-scientific modes to collectively-strengthened rational international universalism.
Our ethical dimension guide our thoughts, attitudes, and actions towards fellow human beings, and fellow creatures on the planet. Important elements of morality can be traced to traditional religious which preached values like caring and compassion, kindness and love, striving for peace and justice, and the like. Enlightenment extends these from inter-personal frameworks to inter-group interactions as well.
Globalization has benefited many, but it has also made poor people pawns of international capitalism. Citizens in theocratic countries and those under dictatorships cannot say anything about their government. Enlightenment is a work in progress.
A major impact of the emergence of modern science was to cast serious doubts on the supernatural. Enlightenment tended to diminish, dilute, or erase traditional religions, and the associated sexual morality. Reason and rationality were gradually becoming hegemonic. This led to positivism and scientism which preached that only what was confirmed through analysis and experiment had any epistemic value. They ignored the fact that much that do not confirm to reason can be meaningful, fulfilling, even necessary for human beings.
Postmodernism questioned the Enlightenment framework. It challenged scientific knowledge, absolute truths, empirical requirements for beliefs, and culture-independent values. The universalism of the Enlightenment is now replaced by pluralism and diversity, with an implicit anything-goes approach to evaluating beliefs. Some post-modern philosophers argue that the tenets of Enlightenment are themselves culture-dependent, a product of an arrogant and limited Western mind, and therefore need not be embraced by every culture on earth.
Three points must be noted in this context: Technology and modern medicine benefit even those who decry modern science and its worldviews. Likewise, even people who denounce Enlightenment have benefited from it. The most severe critics of Western societies – they includes ethnic minorities in the West – would rather live in nations where Enlightenment is a dominant force. Even nations that explicitly reject the Enlightenment as a cultural product of the West, recognize the value organizations like the UNO and the UNESCO: products of the Enlightenment.
One reason why religious and political intolerance continues in the twenty-first century is that Enlightenment values have not taken deep root among large numbers of people. Ironically, what enables this is that in the name of tolerance intolerant ideologies are allowed to propagate, and many governments don’t foster Enlightenment. Furthermore, anti-Enlightenment forces are now molding the minds of people through social media and now some of them have also acquired weapons-power.
The course of history cannot be predicted. Freedom and human rights can be snuffed all of a sudden because of political upheavals over which the common people have little control. A charismatic dictator with pre- or anti-Enlightenment perspective, a supreme theocratic leader, or the rise to superpower status of an Enlightenment-rejecting nuclear power can spell the downfall of Enlightenment in any country, or even in the world.
Spurts of Thought 