[HN Gopher] The End of Enlightenment: Empire, Commerce, Crisis
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       The End of Enlightenment: Empire, Commerce, Crisis
        
       Author : benbreen
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2023-12-20 19:50 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.historytoday.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.historytoday.com)
        
       | rch wrote:
       | This seems like an indictment the Enlightenment itself, instead
       | of the critique of current social philosophy that I'd be
       | interested in.
        
         | hackernewds wrote:
         | what is the current social philosophy for you?
        
         | sctb wrote:
         | Fair enough, but one of the advantages of looking at
         | Enlightenment philosophy on its own terms is that it's easier
         | to perceive--and thus learn from--its failures. "Current social
         | philosophy" has the disadvantage of being both current (so are
         | we) and social (so are we), and so we suffer from a lack of
         | perspective. It would not be surprising to me if one could
         | identify weaknesses of 18th century thought that persist today.
        
       | eikenberry wrote:
       | > What was the Enlightenment? Damned if I know.
       | 
       | It was the rediscovery of Aristotle along with the newly formed
       | universities giving him an audience. Everything else fell out of
       | that.
        
       | nostromo wrote:
       | "Oh actually the Enlightenment was bad" is very on-trend for
       | academic historians in 2023.
       | 
       | The book isn't out yet, but the synopsis here seems like the
       | author is projecting his bias onto history (claiming "the pursuit
       | of happiness" is just about consuming luxury goods is moronic).
       | 
       | Arguing that the decline of religion lead to a rise in
       | nationalism might be true, but that doesn't mean the previous
       | religious structures didn't deserve to be corrected.
        
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       (page generated 2023-12-23 23:00 UTC)