While some claim that “…Western philosophy, for which the subject-object dialectic, the Cartesian viewpoint, and the absolute I-know-it-all attitude still hold massive sway”, “Cartesian doubt is a systematic process of being skeptical about the truth of one's beliefs”. This presentation asks why Enlightenment thought continues to be so misrepresented

Beighton, C.

English

Canterbury Research and Theses Environment

Research SpaceLecture0 Sapere Aude Beighton, C.Sapere Aude: Enlightenment ideas, values and slogans and academic cancel culture5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 1Olympe de Gouges 1748-1793“Man, are you capable of  being just? It is a woman who poses the question”Queen’s speech on 11th May 2021 • promise to “strengthen and renew democracy” • Higher education: free speech and academic freedom5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 2Gavin Williamson“creeping culture of censorship” (p. 5)? • has produced a “chilling effect” on academic freedom 5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 3“there is a growing atmosphere on campuses that is antithetical to constructive debate where differing opinion is respected”.  (pp.18-19)some caveats (1)Caveat 1• Only “a tiny proportion” of events have actually been cancelled in recent years: • a recent briefing paper = actual incidents of “no platforming” are rare. Caveat 2• attributable to a very small minority of individual students or staff 5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 4More seriously…(2)Caveat 1: negativity • shambolic and negative• handmaiden to capitalism ( i.e. a measure of (online)  productivity, not behaviour or values.)• Sad puritanism (resentful scolding and threats)Caveat: 2: positivity • Fear of CC is itself a moral panic (pomo irony? Or “right wing myth”• ritualized mimicry of the judicial process• “Ambition makes rational debate impossible, even when our freedom to speak remains perfectly intact.”5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 5Self-censorship1. perceived hostility from peers2. fear of harming the reputation of the organisation 3. anxiety about damaging career prospects by daring to exercise the public use of reason. 5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 6Although threatening fines for 'no-platforming' may have the 'very same effect' as banning controversial guestsCancelling the Enlightenment?“…Western philosophy, for which the subject-object dialectic, the Cartesian viewpoint, and the absolute I-know-it-all attitude still hold massive sway.”• “Cartesian doubt is a systematic process of being skeptical about the truth of one's beliefs”• "dubito ergo cogito, cogito ergo sum"• (wikipedia)•  even the cogito is undermined by Evil Genius Doubt.5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 7Enlightenment: values or slogans?Descartes / Spinoza Hobbes / RousseauLeibniz / Voltaire Hume / Kant• Lots of (anachronistic?) controversy , but • Deus sive natura (BdS)• No man has any natural authority over his fellow men. (JJR)• Cultivate your garden (V)5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 8Sapere aude: “Have the courage to use your own understanding,"And of course… • “…I have no need to think, if only I can pay”  I. Kant.5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 9So enlightenment values = escaping nonage• Olympe de Gouges• Mary Wollstonecraft • Catharine Macauley • "the only limit to the exercise of the natural rights of woman is the perpetual tyranny that man opposes to it" • “All the sacred rights of humanity are violated by insisting on blind obedience.”• “I have no desire to see the residence of the tyrants”5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 10Coffee houses, salons, debating societies: public use of reasonOlympe de Gouges (1748-1793) “The tocsin of reason resounds through the whole universe: recognize your rights. The powerful empire of nature is no longer surrounded by prejudices, fanaticism, superstition and lies.”5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 11"They never forgave her, and she paid for her carelessness with her head.“ (in 1793)5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 12Just one example…“The difference between the European savages and the American consists chiefly in the fact that while many tribes of the latter are entirely eaten up by their enemies, the former know how to make a better use of their captives than to roast and eat them. They use them to increase the number of their subjects and thereby the number of instruments for still more extensive wars.” (IK, 1795) 5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 13Slogans for fun…5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 14“To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous.”Wollstonecraft – Rousseau – Kant?   To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.Enlightenment is a concept, not a time, place or object5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 15“To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous.”To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.Reading backgroundhttps://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/postliberal-epistemology/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/3810704?seq=1 https://unescochair-cbrsr.org/pdf/resource/Epistemologies_of_the_South.pdf http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html And if you read only one…5/19/2021 christian.beighton@canterbury.ac.uk 161759 

0 Sapere Aude

https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/download/4fdfa9727ede044a5e5f4a47efb870a012da34ff01400614f00b95c8786822ba/1236447/0%20SapereAudeBeightonMaqy21.pdf

0 Sapere Aude

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Canterbury Research and Theses Environment