The enlightenment

The term Enlightenment is used to refer to intellectual and social developments in the 18th century. The underlying force was an increasing belief in the scientific approach to attaining knowledge, as opposed to the medieval reliance on religion and tradition. The more successful science became, the more intellectuals began to see the scientific method as a way to organize society. With respect to clinical psychology, the Enlightenment was characterized by a new approach to mental illness and the treatment of the mentally ill, who became seen as ailing patients in need of help in specialized institutions

German Enlightenment

This article is available (in Hebrew translation) in: “Niemieckie oświecenie” (German Enlightenment), in Filozofia Oświecenia. Radykalizm – religia – kosmopolityzm (Enlightenment Philosophy: Radical, Religious, and Cosmopolitan, edited by Justyna Miklaszewska and Anna Tomaszewska (Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press, 2016) 65-94. The author retains English rights to the article, and has submitted it for inclusion in OpenBU

Against Alienation: The Emancipative Potential of Critical Pedagogy in Fromm

Critical theory generally refers to a series of pathways for Marxist-inspired intellectual inquiry that first emerged with the end of the 18th century European Enlightenment and in particular with the initial widespread waning of intellectual confidence that the newly hegemonic bourgeois society would succeed in realizing Enlightenment ideals. In short, it represents the intellectual articulation of the conviction that modern capitalist society cannot—at least not without significant reformation or substantial transformation—realize the Enlightenment ideal of an enlightened society. According to Enlightenment consensus, this society is to be one which will genuinely embody the highest values of human civilization, and which will thereby insure steady progress in the attainment of liberty, justice, prosperity, and contentment for all of its citizens

'From where do these chords come?': Theoretical Traditions In The Enlightenment Boston University, 23 October 2015

Accepted manuscrip

Enlightenment and Ecumenism

The contribution of monasticism to Christian theology\u27s framework in almost all periods is undisputed. However, the eighteenth century as a period of monastic theology is still—unjustly—overlooked. That was precisely the time when monks, mostly Benedictines, challenged the traditional ways of theologizing and, along with a number of dedicated individuals, initiated what came to be called the Catholic Enlightenment.1 This movement worked not only for a renewal of ecclesiastical practice and thought, but also for a peaceful dialogue between the Christian churches and even toward an ecumenical theology. One of the most intriguing figures of this enlightened theology is the Swabian Benedictine Beda Mayr (1742-1794)—the forgotten grandfather of ecumenical theology

Catholic Theology and the Enlightenment (1670–1815)

This chapter examines the Catholic Church’s engagement with the Enlightenment from 1670–1815. It considers Catholic philosophies of the Enlightenment and new conceptualizations of natural law. The chapter also explores Catholic exegetical discussions during the period, showing how Enlightenment concerns enabled new styles of attention to the Scriptural text, new Patristic scholarship, and the origins of the later liturgical movement. Jansenist and Gallican theologies stimulated reflection on eccelesiology and the papacy, and a variety of thinkers developed new theologies of the state, and of the economy. This period also saw the rise of the Catholic ultramontanism that was to mark Church life until the Second Vatican Council

The Enlightenment, Popper and Einstein

A basic idea of the 18th century French Enlightenment was to learn from scientific progress how to achieve social progress towards an enlightened world. Unfortunately, the philosophes developed this profoundly important idea in a seriously defective form, and it is this defective form that came to be built into the institutional structure of academia in the early 20th century with the creation of departments of social science. We still suffer from it today. This article discusses four versions of the Enlightenment programme, each correcting mistakes of its predecessor, the upshot being that we need to bring about a revolution in the aims and methods of academic inquiry if the basic Enlightenment idea is to be properly implemented

A brief explanation of Kant's Enlightenment article

A presentation of Kant's idea for enlightenment process that was happening at that time. I try to be objective as it is needed to give a thorough explanation for what was the main subject in this process. Kant explains the main idea of enlightenment and describes it with examples for which stands descriptive and understandable for that period

Spinoza y el Spinozismo en la Ilustración Occidental: los últimos giros de la controversia

This article seeks to outline the main elements in the historiographical controversy over the significance of ‘Spinozism’ as an eighteenth-century Enlightenment category and the validity or otherwise of the concept of ‘Radical Enlightenment’ as well as the relationship between these two categories. Defining ‘Radical Enlightenment’ as the philosophical rejection of religious authority combined with a democratic tending system of social and political thought, and as a partly clandestine tradition that evolved in opposition to the moderate mainstream Enlightenment, it seeks to sketch in the main features both of the ‘negative critique’ broadly opposing this way of understanding the Western Enlightenment and the ‘positive critique’ that accepts this classification in broad outline.En el presente artículo se aspira a resumir los principales elementos de la controversia historiográfica acerca del significado de “Spinozismo” como categoría de la Ilustración del siglo XVIII y de la validez o no del concepto de “Ilustración Radical”, así como la relación entre ambas categorías. Al definir la “Ilustración Radical” como el rechazo filosófico de la autoridad religiosa, en combinación con un sistema de pensamiento social y político que propende a la democracia, y como una tradición en parte clandestina desarrollada en oposición a la corriente principal de la Ilustración, más moderada, el texto pretende bosquejar en sus rasgos distintivos tanto la “crítica negativa”, fuertemente opuesta a ese modo de entender la Ilustración Occidental, como la “crítica positiva”, que la acepta ampliamente