![]() More than any other astronomer, Isaac Newton gave the 18 th century its cosmology of unity, predictability and order. This paper explores the influence of Isaac Newton"s astronomy on European culture. But, as Boulanger's work underscores, it might throw light on an equally important problem: why democracy came so late in the day. Studying the Enlightenment might not allow us to understand why democratic political culture came into being. This conclusion raises a new question: if the Enlightenment did not create our modern democracies, then what did it do? In answer to that question, this paper suggests that we should take more seriously the writings of enlightened monarchists like Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger. Yet, even Israel's work, as its critical reception highlights, does not convincingly demonstrate that the Enlightenment, as an intellectual movement, contributed in any meaningful way to the creation of modern political culture. More recently, Jonathan Israel's trilogy on the Enlightenment has revived the modernization thesis, albeit in a dramatic new form. Indeed, Gay's most important and influential successors – historians such as Robert Darnton and Roy Porter – all ended up defending the idea that the Enlightenment was a major force in the creation of modern democratic values and institutions. Yet, as this paper shows, it continues to survive in postwar historiography, in particular in the Anglophone world. Ever since this view – which we might describe as the modernization thesis – was first formulated by Peter Gay, it has been repeatedly criticized as misguided: a myth. ![]() " Such a rereading implies threeĪccording to the textbook version of history, the Enlightenment played a crucial role in the creation of the modern, liberal democracies of the West. ![]() Scholars are now challenging the Eu-rocentric account of the " birth of the modern world. " 3 This interpretation is no longer tenable. As William McNeill exulted in his Rise of the West, " We, and all the world of the twentieth century, are peculiarly the creatures and heirs of a handful of geniuses of early modern Europe. " 2 Over the course of the nineteenth century, or so the received wisdom has it, these ingredients of the modern were then exported to the rest of the world. " 1 The results included the world of the individual, human rights, rationalization, and what Max Weber famously called the " disenchant-ment of the world. According to this master narrative, the Renaissance, humanism, and the Reformation " gave a new impetus to intellectual and scientific development that, a little more than three and a half centuries later, flowered in the scientific revolution and then in the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment appears as an original and autonomous product of Eu-rope, deeply embedded in the cultural traditions of the Occident. The assumption that the Enlightenment was a specifically European phenomenon remains one of the foundational premises of Western modernity, and of the modern West. The dominant readings are based on narratives of uniqueness and diffusion. A global history perspective is emerging in the literature that moves beyond the obsession with the Enlightenment's European origins. Historians have now begun to challenge this view. They have helped entrench a view of global interactions as having essentially been energized by Europe alone. The standard interpretations, however, have tended to assume, and to perpetuate, a Eu-rocentric mythology. It has served as a sign of the modern, and continues to play that role yet today. THE ENLIGHTENMENT HAS LONG HELD a pivotal place in narratives of world history. ![]() Following Michel Foucault’s recommendation of freeing ourselves from the “intellectual blackmail of being for or against the Enlightenment”, the article explores the possibilities of “re-enchantment” with the Enlightenment and the costs and challenges of this endeavor. The article critically engages with these claims to explore the dilemmatic relation of postcolonialism to the Enlightenment. As a counterpoint to the postcolonial critique of the Enlightenment it is argued that the Enlightenment was in fact anti-imperialist. However, a number of recent publications seek to provide a corrective to what is contended is a misrepresentation of the Enlightenment’s epistemological investment in imperialism by recovering critical perspectives within European political thought. Colonialism and the Holocaust are testimony to the fact that the progressive ideals of the Enlightenment were in fact tainted. The contribution addresses this “disenchantment” with the Enlightenment. However, the historical triumph of reason and science brought with it terror, genocide, slavery, exploitation, domination, and oppression. By subjecting religious and political authorities to reasoned criticism, the Enlightenment fashions itself as a movement toward human liberty and equality, knowledge and progress.
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