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Enlightenment

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


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the origins of the so-called modern world to the Enlightenment and the revolutionary waves, political and economic, at the end of the eighteenth century.
Abstract: TRADITIONALLY, WESTERN HISTORIOGRAPHY traces the origins of the so-called modern world to the Enlightenment and the revolutionary waves, political and economic, at the end of the eighteenth century. These eighteenthcentury origins are related to the rise of a new social class and its triumph over the ancien regime as a precondition for the unfolding of the two major aspects of modern civilization-capitalism and statism. But is this view not oversimple? We historians know all too well-and recent scholarship repeatedly reminds us of it-that the past is much more tenacious than public opinion imagines it to be. Little of the past is ever fully lost, though its dynamic role may change and its forms be transmuted. With respect to state policy and administration, the question arises whether the new ideas of the Enlightenment and the interests of a rising middle class helped to shape the actions of rulers and governments before the French Revolution. Was not the enlightened despotism (or "absolutism," as I would prefer to call it) such a response to intellectual and social pressures? But the very contradiction inherent in the notion of enlightened absolutism doomed the effort to failure and opened the way to the storm of

115 citations

Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: The Virtues of Liberalism as mentioned in this paper is a rich and rich tradition of political, economic, and social discourse that informed American democratic culture from the seventeenth century to the present.
Abstract: This spirited analysis and defence of American liberalism demonstrates the complex and rich traditions of political, economic, and social discourse that have informed American democratic culture from the seventeenth century to the present. The Virtues of Liberalism provides a convincing response to critics both right and left. Against conservatives outside the academy who oppose liberalism because they equate it with license, James T. Kloppenberg uncovers ample evidence of American republicans' and liberal democrats' commitments to ethical and religious ideals and their awareness of the difficult choices involved in promoting virtue in a culturally diverse nation. Against radical academic critics who reject liberalism because they equate it with Enlightenment reason and individual property holding, Kloppenberg shows the historical roots of American liberals' dual commitments to diversity, manifested in institutions designed to facilitate deliberative democracy, and to government regulations of property and market exchange in accordance with the public good. In contrast to prevailing tendencies to simplify and distort American liberalism, Kloppenberg shows how the multifaceted virtues of liberalism have inspired theorists and reformers from Thomas Jefferson and James Madison through Jane Addams and John Dewey to Martin Luther King, Jr., and then explains how these virtues persist in the work of some liberal democrats today. Endorsing the efforts of such neo-progressive and communitarian theorists and journalists as Michael Walzer, Jane Mansbridge, Michael Sandel, and E. J. Dionne, Kloppenberg also offers a more acute analysis of the historical development of American liberalism and of the complex reasons why it has been transformed and made more vulnerable in recent decades. An intelligent, coherent, and persuasive canvas that stretches from the Enlightenment to the American Revolution, from Tocqueville's observations to the New Deal's social programs, and from the right to worship freely to the idea of ethical responsibility, this book is a valuable contribution to historical scholarship and to contemporary political and cultural debates.

115 citations

BookDOI
31 Jan 1992
TL;DR: In this paper, the author retraces Moisiodax's career and contrasts the Greek Enlightenment with the Western Enlightenment as a whole, in a study of a passionate reformer, who advocated the use of Greek in education and aspired to see the backward and intellectually conservative Balkan societies remodelled along European lines.
Abstract: In 18th-century Greek culture, Iosipos Moisiodax (c.1725-1800) was a controversial figure, whose daring pronouncements in favour of cultural change embroiled him in ideological conflicts and made him a target of persecution. One of the first intellectuals in south-eastern Europe to voice the ideas of the Enlightenment in public and without qualification, he advocated the use of vernacular Greek in education and aspired to see the backward and intellectually conservative Balkan societies remodelled along European lines. In this study of a passionate reformer, the author retraces Moisiodax's career and contrasts the Greek Enlightenment with the Western Enlightenment as a whole.

113 citations

Book
01 Jan 1995

113 citations

Book
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: Porter as discussed by the authors highlights Britain's long-underestimated and pivotal role in disseminating the ideas and culture of the Enlightenment and explains how the monumental transformation of thinking in Britain influenced worldwide developments.
Abstract: From the author of The Greatest Benefit to Mankind (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award) comes a "sumptuous and spicy volume" (Washington Post Book World) that highlights Britain's long-underestimated and pivotal role in disseminating the ideas and culture of the Enlightenment. In response to numerous histories centered on France and Germany, Roy Porter explains how the monumental transformation of thinking in Britain influenced worldwide developments. This "splendidly imaginative" work "propels the debate forward...and makes a valuable point" (New York Times Book Review).

112 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20241
2023965
20222,158
202181
2020179
2019214