Enlightenment

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

The Barbarism of Reason: Max Weber and the Twilight of Enlightenment

Abstract: The recent renewal of interest in Max Weber evidences an attempt to enlist his thought in the service of a renewed dream of Enlightenment individualism. Yet he was the first twentieth-century thinker to fully appreciate the pervasiveness and ambiguity of rationalization which threatened to undermine the hopes of the Enlightenment.Asher Horowitz and Terry Maley present a collection of essays tracing the contemporary significance of Weber's work for the tradition of Enlightenment political thought and its critiques. In its critical inquiry into Weber's thought, The Barbarism of Reason continues the exploration of the limits and prospects of politics in a rationalizing society.The first section comprises a set of both historical and philosophical reflections on the political implications of Weber's central concepts such as disenchantment, rationality, and affectivity, the historical understanding, meaning, and domination. The second section examines the institutional and historical context that framed Weber's inquiries into structures of the modern mode of domination, as well as his understanding of the nature of the modern state. Among the topics broached are Weber's strategic intervention into the development of the liberal theory of the state as well as a critical examination of the theoretical and pre-theoretical roots of his construction of the subject. Another of the essays reveals the schizophrenic structure of modern subjectivity. The third and last section attempts to trace the vicissitudes of Weber's seminal problems concerning rationalization, power, and disenchantment through some of the most important responses to his work in the twentieth century.

Religion, spirituality, and mental health.

Abstract: 190:697–704, 2002In recent decades, the mental health professionshave begun to reckon with the influence of religionin American life and its ramifications for the individ-ual’s personal functioning. Other sectors of soci-ety—social welfare, the media, education, the legalsystem, and medicine—have made similar efforts totake religion into account, each from its own stand-point. Thus, social workers have attempted to mapout feasible social and rehabilitation goals for cli-ents under the mandate of “faith-based” welfare. Inmedicine, studies have shown that religious belief isvery important to many patients, and that manyseriously ill patients wish that health professionals,including doctors, would demonstrate interest intheir religious beliefs (King and Bushwick, 1994;Ehman et al., 1999; Puchalski, 2000). A new currentis rising in medical education whereby students areinstructed in how to conduct a “spiritual history,”covering the patient’s religious beliefs and valueconstructs (Nichols and Music, 1999).In assessing religion in the United States, it is wellnigh obligatory to recall the separation of church andstate. The federal Constitution prohibits the establish-ment of an official church, and it enjoins governmentfrom supporting, regulating, or curtailing religiousactivity. Neither religion nor government can lean onthe other for legitimation. The founding fathers whoframed the Declaration of Independence and the Con-stitution—Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison—were so-phisticated political thinkers of the Enlightenment. Fa-miliar with European autocracy, they sought anAmerican political framework of limited authority, del-egated powers, and, in regard to religion, no powers orauthority whatsoever reserved to government.Without centralized political focus or administra-tion, religion in the United States flourished. Peoplewere free to form their own religious associations;energies were mobilized that, taken in sum, ex-ceeded what could have been achieved under a cen-tral national establishment. Religion was a small-scale private and family matter. In a broaderterritorial sense, it imparted distinctive culture andcolor to localities and regions (Mormons in Utah,Jews in New York City, Baptists throughout theSouth). As an expression of the convictions andbeliefs of the individual, religious commitment alsobecame, in free society, a meaningful component ofpersonality in assessing mental and emotional well-being. In an open, fluid society, one’s religious ori-entation stands as a clearer lens into his or herpsychic reality than in a society “occupied” or dom-inated by a state religion.The separation of church and state, though a basicAmerican political motif, says nothing about theactual religious composition of the nation. Apartfrom the traditions of the Native American peoples,the United States was overwhelmingly ChristianProtestant in the era of its founding. With the mas-sive flows of immigration that followed, it has sincebecome what Eck calls “the world’s most religiouslydiverse nation” (Eck, 2001). The 19th century sawlarge waves of Catholic and Jewish immigration,which have continued to the present. Muslim immi-gration commenced in the early 20th century andlikewise remains significant today.What can be referred to descriptively as religiousdiversity translates at the levels of community, pub-lic policy, and private attitude into pluralism andtolerance. This does not mean, however, that therehave not been considerable prejudice and discrimi-nation against non-Protestants, and later, againstnon-Christians. Nevertheless, there has been nolarge-scale, prolonged religious conflict or vio-lence—no Inquisition and no Thirty Years’ War. Onthe whole, tolerance has arguably characterized thenational history, which is perhaps all the more re-markable given that religious sentiment has beenhistorically stronger in the United States than inmany other industrialized nations.Although religion is a salient component in theAmerican psyche, there is an aura of reserve aboutthe promotion and display of one’s own religious

Cultivating online and offline pathways to enlightenment: Religious authority and strategic arbitration in wired Buddhist organization

Abstract: In light of expanding epistemic resources online, the mediatization of religion poses questions about the possible changes, decline and reconstruction of clergy authority. Distinct from virtual Buddhism or cybersangha research which relies primarily on online observational data, this paper examines Buddhist clergy communication within the context of established religious organizations with an integrationist perspective on interpersonal communication and new and old media connections. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Buddhist leaders in Singapore, this paper illustrates ways in which priests are expanding their communicative competency, which we label ‘strategic arbitration’ to maintain their authority by restructuring multimodal representations and communicative influence. This study expands upon previous research by Cheong et al. (in press, Journal of Communication) and finds that constituting Buddhist religious epistemic authority in wired organizational contexts rests on coordinating online–offline ...

Medicine in the Enlightenment

Abstract: Jonathan ANDREWS: The Politics of Committal to Early Modern Bethlem. L.W.B. BROCKLISS: Medical Reform, the Enlightenment and Physician-Power in Late Eighteenth-Century France. Johanna GEYER-KORDESCH: Whose Enlightenment? Medicine, Witchcraft, Melancholia and Pathology. Isobel GRUNDY: Sarah Stone, Enlightenment Midwife. Mark JACKSON: Developing Medical Expertise: Medical Practitioners and the Suspected Murders of New-Born Children. Ludmilla J. JORDANOVA: Reflections on Medical Reform: Cabanis' Coup d'xuil. Mary LINDEMANN: The Enlightenment Encountered: The German Physicus and His World, 1750-1820. Andreas-Holger MAEHLE: Conflicting Attitudes Towards Inoculation in Enlightenment Germany. Francis MCKEE: Honeyed Words: Bernard Mandeville and Medical Discourse. Roy PORTER: Shaping Psychiatric Knowledge: The Role of the Asylum. Roselyne REY: Vitalism, Disease and Society. Andrea A. RUSNOCK: The Weight of Evidence and the Burden of Authority: Case Histories, Medical Statistics and Smallpox Inoculation. David E. SHUTTLETON: Methodism and Dr George Cheyne's 'More Enlightening Principles'. Akihito SUZUKI: Anti-Lockean Enlightenment? Mind and Body in Early Eighteenth-Century English Medicine. Philip WILSON: An Enlightenment Science? Surgery and the Royal Society. INDEX.