Enlightenment

Definition of Enlightenment [project]

The Canada social science dictionary [1] provides the following meaning of Enlightenment [project]: In order to understand what postmodernism is about it is essential to understand what modernity means for the social sciences and this is linked to what is deemed to be the ‘enlightenment project’. The age of enlightenment ushered in human rationality as the source of knowledge, thus encouraging the rejection of previous authorities such as the church or custom. This new acceptance of human rationality became linked to science as the key to understanding the natural and social worlds, and led to a search to understand causality and to the belief that human rationality would lead to a more enlightened age, a progressive age characterized by human liberation. These beliefs shape social sciences by giving science a privileged position in the pursuit of truth, encouraging the search for sets of concepts to provide a framework for understanding social life regardless of particular social situations or time and the acceptance of ‘metanarratives’ (large and abstract social theory including sociology) as superior to other narrative accounts about society. Much of this is apparent in some of the works of Karl Marx. Marxian theory is a large metanarrative about the historical development of western societies such that it includes all stories about society and because of its claim to be based on scientific observation and its use of a conceptual framework (modes of production, relations of production) it claims a privileged position and a universal nature (it is to apply to all capitalist societies). Further, it is claimed that by using the metanarrative the consciousness of workers can be enhanced (corrected) and an age of liberation will follow. Modernity or the enlightenment project is reflected in ‘positivism’, the importance of the ‘scientific method’, the belief that social science can be used to better society (Emile Durkheim is very explicit about this) and the sweeping away of the subjective beliefs of ‘ordinary actors’. See: DECONSTRUCTION / METANARRATIVE / POSITIVISM / POSTMODERN in this legal dictionary and in the world encyclopedia of law.

Enlightenment [project]: Resources

Notes and References

• Drislane, R., & Parkinson, G. (2016). (Concept of) Enlightenment [project]. Online dictionary of the social sciences. Open University of Canada

Grammar

This term is a noun.

Etimology of Enlightenment

(You may find enlightenment at the world legal encyclopedia and the etimology of more terms).

1660s, “action of enlightening,” from enlighten + -ment. Used only in figurative sense, of spiritual enlightenment, etc. Attested from 1865 as a translation of German Aufklärung, a name for the spirit of independent thought and rationalistic system of 18c. Continental philosophers. For the philosophes, man was not a sinner, at least not by nature; human nature — and this argument was subversive, in fact revolutionary, in their day — is by origin good, or at least neutral. Despite the undeniable power of man’s antisocial passions, therefore, the individual may hope for improvement through his own efforts — through education, participation in politics, activity in behalf of reform, but not through prayer. [Peter Gay, “The Enlightenment”]