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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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Book
01 Apr 2004
TL;DR: Dunlap as discussed by the authors traces the history of environmentalism from its roots in the Enlightenment and Romanticism through the Progressive Era to the present, and examines the passion of the movement's adherents and enemies alike, its concern with the moral conduct of daily life, and its attempt to answer fundamental questions about the underlying order of the world and of humanity's place within it.
Abstract: The human impulse to religion - the drive to explain the world, humans, and humans' place in the universe - can be seen to encompass environmentalism as an offshoot of the secular, material faith in human reason and power that dominates modern society. "Faith in Nature" traces the history of environmentalism - and its moral thrust - from its roots in the Enlightenment and Romanticism through the Progressive Era to the present. Drawing astonishing parallels between religion and environmentalism, the book examines the passion of the movement's adherents and enemies alike, its concern with the moral conduct of daily life, and its attempt to answer fundamental questions about the underlying order of the world and of humanity's place within it. Thomas Dunlap is among the leading environmental historians and historians of science in the United States. Originally trained as a chemist, he has a rigorous understanding of science and appreciates its vital importance to environmental thought. But he is also a devout Catholic who believes that the insights of religious revelation need not necessarily be at odds with the insights of scientific investigation. This book grew from his own religious journey and his attempts to understand human ethical obligations and spiritual debts to the natural world.

43 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An overview of the relationship between archaeology and history is presented as the context in which to situate the argument that a rapprochement between the disciplines can be achieved only if we begin to think of texts and objects as having had efficacy in the past rather than just as evidence about it as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: An overview of the relationship between archaeology and history is presented as the context in which to situate the argument that a rapprochement between the disciplines can be achieved only if we begin to think of texts and objects as having had efficacy in the past rather than just as evidence about it. Discussions of the meaning of material culture and the power of texts conclude with the suggestion that historical archaeologists need to be more cognizant of the latter. A case-study from the Roman world is used to illustrate the fact that texts can be both instruments of oppression and vehicles for enlightenment and liberation.

43 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The postmodern response to the truth claims traditionally made on behalf of visionary moments has been examined in this article, where it is argued that postmodern writers might draw on the resources of metafiction to parodically "lay bare" the essentially literary nature of such moments.
Abstract: tW ~ # hat is the postmodern response to the truth claims traditionally made on behalf of visionary moments? By "visionary moment," I mean that flash of insight or sudden revelation which critically raises the level of spiritual or self-awareness of a fictional character. It is a mode of cognition typically represented as bypassing rational thought processes and attaining a "higher" or redemptive order of knowledge (gnosis). There are, conceivably, three types of postmodern response which merit attention here. First, in recognition of the special role literature itself has played in establishing the credibility of visionary moments, postmodern writers might draw on the resources of metafiction to parodically "lay bare" the essentially literary nature of such moments. Baldly stated, the visionary moment could be exposed as a literary convention, that is, a concept that owes more to the practice of organizing narratives around a sudden illumination (as in, say, the narratives of Wordsworth's Prelude or Joyce's Dubliners) than to reallife experience. Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 is premised on this assumption. Pynchon's sleuthlike protagonist, Oedipa Maas, finds herself in a situation in which clues-contrary to the resolution of the standard detective story-proliferate uncontrollably, thereby impeding the emergence of a final enlightenment or "stelliferous Meaning" (82). It is a situation that not only frustrates Oedipa, who is continually tantalized by the sense that "a revelation . . . trembled just past the threshold of her understand

43 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In 2002, the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Bodhgaya was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site as discussed by the authors, which set in motion a series of development proposals and heritage policies that seek to rehabilitate and recreate this centre of world Buddhism.
Abstract: In 2002 the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Bodhgaya was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. As the alleged site of Buddha's enlightenment it is one of the most revered and sanctified places for Buddhists around the world. This international designation has also set in motion a series of development proposals and heritage policies that seek to rehabilitate and recreate this centre of world Buddhism that provides glimpses of the land of enlightenment as it used to be in the times of the Buddha. Central to these initiatives are plans on behalf of the Bihar state tourism department to promote Brand Buddhism and spiritual tourism through the establishment of an 18 hole golf course and five-star hotels. These development proposals along with the recent UNESCO World Heritage designation have brought to the foreground the multiplicity of stakeholders in competition over the site's spiritual capital today. This paper will explore some of the contradictions and entanglements over Bodhgaya's present and uncertain future.

43 citations

BookDOI
TL;DR: In Search of a Descriptive Human Equality as discussed by the authors is a collection of essays about human equality and its application in the context of the Repaving project, Part II: An Equal Opportunity Creator.
Abstract: Acknowledgment and ApologyForewordIntroduction: In Search of a Descriptive Human Equality3Pt. IHuman Equality: What does it Mean?171What Has Been Said?222The Host Property393Making the Host Property Uniform66Pt. IICould the Philosophers Believe in Human Equality?914Could the Enlightenment Believe? Individualism, Kant, and Equality1015Nature, Natural Law, and Equality123Pt. IIICould the Christians Believe in Human Equality?1456The Framework for a Christian Obtensionalism1487Repaving the Road to Hell: The Pelagian Issues1648The Repaving Project, Part II: An Equal-Opportunity Creator191Pt. IVGood Persons and the Common Good2159Harmonies of the Moral Spheres21810Harvests of Equality232Notes261Index349

43 citations


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