Answering the Question, 'What Remains of Enlightenment'?
Autor: | Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze |
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Rok vydání: | 2002 |
Předmět: | |
Zdroj: | Human Studies. 25:281-288 |
ISSN: | 1572-851X 0163-8548 |
DOI: | 10.1023/a:1020179104026 |
Popis: | I shall approach the question, "What remains of Enlightenment?" by stating what I believe should not remain of it: its metaphysical conception of race. It should surprise none that in the document announcing this essay competition, race ? along with gender and sexuality is mentioned peripherally ("given the readership of Human Studies... what remains of Enlightenment for..."), emphases being placed on the rather strong editorial suggestion, in the open? ing paragraph, to inspire oneself from Derrida, Foucault, and Habermas. Just as it is assumed that Enlightenment in the eighteenth century was unracial and ungendered and asexual, it is easily believed that what remains of Enlighten? ment, as in the works of the canonical figures mentioned, contain unracial, ungendered, and asexual ideas which, nevertheless, are relevant for.. . Is this the only way to think of Enlightenment? Race?I shall thus limit my contribution is not marginal to either Enlight? enment's historical self-constitution or conceptual self-understanding. This is obvious once we examine Enlightenment's dominant theories and practices of reason, humanity, culture, and civilization. When historians describe the sources of Enlightenment movements, a unanimous reference is the Renais? sance. Vincent Porter's statement is representative: "As a result of the rebirth of culture (the "Renaissance") which took place mainly in Italy through the rediscovery of Classical civilization, man and things human became the center of attention."1 In this context, Descartes' conception of man, in philosophy, as "a substance whose whole essence .. . was merely to think" is not simply an attempt at description but also a paean to the competence of human reason for handling human affairs and for solving human problems."2 The growing confidence in reason and its progress accounts for the central claim of Enlight? enment: humans, once freed from the shackles of external authority both theoretical and institutional-could define and eventually achieve ever-increas? ing moral, political, and economic ideals which all mankind would spontane? ously endorse. This is evident in Kant's Belinische Monatsschrift essay, where the key to such progress is "maturity" ? the ability to think for oneself. But what, for Kant, is meant by "mankind" of "maturity"? Does this mean all human beings, or just Europeans and white humans? What are left out in Potter's incontestable account of the origins of Enlightenment are the exog |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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