Can we create a New Age of Enlightenment?

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coberst
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Can we create a New Age of Enlightenment?

Post by coberst »

Can we create a New Age of Enlightenment?

If one half of one percent of the population acquires the hobby that I call the ‘intellectual life’ such a group could be the foundation for a new Age of Enlightenment.

The original Age of Enlightenment occurred in Europe during the eighteenth century. “The men [in the 18th century the enlightened were still only half enlightened] of the Enlightenment united on a vastly ambitious program, a program of secularism, humanity, cosmopolitanism, and freedom, above all, freedom in its many forms—freedom from arbitrary power, freedom of speech, freedom of trade, freedom to realize one’s talents, freedom of aesthetic response, freedom, in a word, of moral man to make his own way in the world.”

It appears to me that following the completion of our schooling the normal inclination is to pack up our yearbook and our intellect into a large trunk and store it in the attic. Occasionally one might go up to the attic and reminisce about the old days.

What I propose is that following the end of our school days we begin a gradual process of self-actualizing self-learning.

This period of our life is generally filled with our duties to family and career so that not a great deal of time is available for extraneous matters. However, time is always available for important things and the important thing is to ‘keep curiosity alive’.

I suspect that if one does not engage in non job related intellectual efforts for the twenty years between the end of schooling and mid-life that the curiosity with which we started life will have dried up and blown away.

What are non job related intellectual activities? Such activities are what I consider to be intellectualism. Intellectualism is active engagement with ‘disinterested knowledge’.

There is in industry the concept of ‘applied research’, which is research looking for a good way to build a new mouse trap; there is also a concept called ‘pure research’, which is a search for truth that may or may not lead to an enhancement of the ‘bottom line’.

Interested knowledge is knowledge we acquire because there is money in it. Disinterested knowledge is that knowledge we seek because we care about understanding something even though there is no money in it.



The goal of intellectual life is similar to the goal of the artist "the artist chooses the media and the goal of every artist is to become fluent enough with the media to transcend it. At some point you pass from playing the piano to playing music."

I think it is possible for a significant portion of the population of every nation to become intellectuals. What do you think?

Quotes from The Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Paganism by Peter Gay
gmc
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Can we create a New Age of Enlightenment?

Post by gmc »

Not in america I don't think. At it's heart was a questioning and rejection of religion and the certainties it once held. In the states you seem to be going backwards with religion tightening it's grip and people afraid to speak out against it.

Do bear in mind I have never been to america and can only judge by what I see on TV and read about.
hoppy
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Can we create a New Age of Enlightenment?

Post by hoppy »

Are you bashing us again?
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along-for-the-ride
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Can we create a New Age of Enlightenment?

Post by along-for-the-ride »

I can perceive individual enlightenment, but not an "age of enlightenment".
Life is a Highway. Let's share the Commute.
gmc
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Can we create a New Age of Enlightenment?

Post by gmc »

hoppy;1254111 wrote: Are you bashing us again?


Actually no. Please stop assuming every comment has no purpose except to bash the US. It might is some cases admittedly but not mine. The intention was to provoke debate no more no less. Coberst is american so there is little point talking about europe.

At the heart of the enlightenment was a rejection of religion-it's authority and it's certainties. In a very real sense the US was isolated from the upheavals of europe and all the great social movements we had-you had your own but they were very different.

There's seems to be something of a christian revival in the states which never quite gets the same momentum here or in europe for all they try and get it going. Personally I hope they never do.

If such a revival is successful in the states you will go backwards, see your individual freedoms eroded-perhaps the single biggest freedom coming from the enlightenment was the right to say I don't believe this without fear of being deemed a heretic and punished. It's all tied up as well with the ending of belief in the divine right of kings to rule
coberst
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Can we create a New Age of Enlightenment?

Post by coberst »

along-for-the-ride;1254197 wrote: I can perceive individual enlightenment, but not an "age of enlightenment".


Quickie from Wiki:

"The term "Enlightenment" came into use in English during the mid-nineteenth century,[2] with particular reference to French philosophy, as the equivalent of a term then in use by German writers, Zeitalter der Aufklärung (Age of the clarification), signifying generally the philosophical outlook of the eighteenth century. However, the German term Aufklärung was not merely applied retrospectively; it was already the common term by 1784, when Immanuel Kant published the influential essay "Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?"

The terminology Enlightenment or Age of Enlightenment does not represent a single movement or school of thought, for these philosophies were often mutually contradictory or divergent. The Enlightenment was less a set of ideas than it was a set of values. At its core was a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals. Some classifications of this period also include the late seventeenth century, which is typically known as the Age of Reason or Age of Rationalism.[3]"
Clodhopper
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Can we create a New Age of Enlightenment?

Post by Clodhopper »

Most interesting thread. Thank you. :)

My short answer is "Yes". (I should really be elsewhere and not posting on the internet! :wah:)

Whether we will or not is a different matter. There are always the philistines who say anything they can't put a monetary value on is worthless.

Also, I agree with gmc, though I would say fundamentalist religion is the enemy of enlightenment. It is very arguable that what we call the Age of Reason AND the Enlightenment occurred as a reaction to the horrendous religious wars that happened in Europe in the C16th and C17th.

But as you say, all we can try to do is improve ourselves. Many years ago I remember having the difference between "childish" and "child-like" explained to me: the former is emotional immaturity; the latter is the ability to look at the world with wonder, as if seeing it for the first time. The idea stayed with me and I have tried to retain that ability.

It is a constant joy and I recommend it to anyone. :-6

Right. MUST go. Bye for now.:)
The crowd: "Yes! We are all individuals!"

Lone voice: "I'm not."
gmc
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Can we create a New Age of Enlightenment?

Post by gmc »

Clodhopper;1254296 wrote: Most interesting thread. Thank you. :)

My short answer is "Yes". (I should really be elsewhere and not posting on the internet! :wah:)

Whether we will or not is a different matter. There are always the philistines who say anything they can't put a monetary value on is worthless.

Also, I agree with gmc, though I would say fundamentalist religion is the enemy of enlightenment. It is very arguable that what we call the Age of Reason AND the Enlightenment occurred as a reaction to the horrendous religious wars that happened in Europe in the C16th and C17th.

But as you say, all we can try to do is improve ourselves. Many years ago I remember having the difference between "childish" and "child-like" explained to me: the former is emotional immaturity; the latter is the ability to look at the world with wonder, as if seeing it for the first time. The idea stayed with me and I have tried to retain that ability.

It is a constant joy and I recommend it to anyone. :-6

Right. MUST go. Bye for now.:)


In some ways i think we are having problems hanging on to the enlightenment and progress we have made so far. Fundamentalist religions seems to be making a comeback from all sides and the established churches are flexing their muscles again as well. Yet we are supposed to be tolerant and respect the beliefs of people that would curb our right to express anything to the contrary.
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