What do you see as the most important concept or idea of the Enlightenment? Please be sure to provide your rationale for:

1) its significance for its own time (historicized analysis) and

2) its significance for our times (ahistorical analysis).

Again, the second reason won’t be one that historians would find valid in an interpretation of the Enlightenment as a historical phenomenon. So unless we ask for this, you wouldn’t include mention of today in your writing in history. BUT it is important to our citizenship to think about how our concepts of humanity and government evolved so let’s talk about then and now!

Category: Essays