Enlightenment

About: Enlightenment is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6845 publications have been published within this topic receiving 116832 citations.

Pragmatic liberalism and the critique of modernity

Abstract: Introduction: the question of modernity Part I. Richard Rorty: The Rudiments of Pragmatic Liberalism: 1. The philosophy of representations 2. Knowledge without representations 3. Justification as a social practice 4. The problem of truth 5. Davidsonian therapy 6. Truth and science 7. Ethics without foundations 8. Liberal ironism Part II. Alasdaire MacIntyre: A Modern Malgre Lui: 1. MacIntyre's critique of the enlightenment 2. Which enlightenment? 3. In defense of enlightenment humanism 4. The lure of tradition 5. The tradition of the virtues 6. MacIntyre and modernity 7. MacIntyre versus pragmatic liberalism Part III. Charles Taylor: An Augustinian Modern: 1. Taylor's historical project 2. Locke and the radical enlightenment 3. The primacy of everyday life 4. Beyond the enlightenment: evil, romanticism, and poetic truth 5. Taylor's critique of naturalism 6. Williams and objectivity 7. Naturalism and hypergoods: pragmatic liberalism Conclusion.

Diversity in European higher education : historical trends and current policies

Abstract: Europe and its universities have a strong and long-standing relationship. Over the centuries European universities have contributed significantly to the social, economic and cultural development of Europe. The very existence of the European universities reflects one of the most central dimensions of the “idea of Europe”. Particularly from the age of the Enlightenment on, European universities became the institutional home of modernity and rationality. When, as Kant said, Europe broke out of its “self-imposed tutelage” during the Enlightenment, modernity became a fundamental European invention and modern science lay at the heart of that modernisation process. Rationality and the corresponding attitude to science and technology became essential and decisive elements of European identity. “Since Europe became Europe in its own eyes, science has been held up as its image and it emblem” (Daston 2005, p. 30). Over time, European universities have changed considerably. Yet they also remained the central European institutions of reason, knowledge, criticism and learning. Plato′s Academy was a centre of dialogue and critical enquiry. The medieval universities were open, self-governing communities of scholars. The “liberal university” of Cardinal John Newman was an institution for independent intellectual self-empowerment. And Wilhelm von Humboldt′s proposals for the establishment of the University of Berlin were first of all aimed at preventing the search for knowledge being corrupted by social forces (Barnett 1990; De Ridder-Symoens 1992, 1996; Nybom 2003).

Rethinking Imagination: Culture and Creativity

Abstract: Pulling together a collection of richly informative essays Rethinking Imagination addresses competing sets of ideas, oscillating between the modern and post-modern, creativity and sublimity, progress and apocalypse, democracy and redemption Enlightenment and Romanticism and reason and imagination. Aiming to thematise these debates from the perspective of the imagination, Rethinking Imagination takes two directions. The first addresses a socio-cultural interpretation in which the distinguishing figures of modernity can be viewed as continuing differentiation and autonomatization of spheres and systems that goes well beyond the divisions of labour. The second is an ongoing philosophical discourse about the imagination and its relation to reason which has been present since Enlightenment. Divided into two separate yet interconnected parts, this book is a highly significant collection of essays and a valuable contribution to the field of philosophical and socio-cultural sociology. It is a key book for undergraduate, postgraduate and academic researchers.