Book contents
- Post-Truth American Politics
- Post-Truth American Politics
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Note on cover image
- 1 Getting Started
- 2 Stories
- 3 The Enlightenment
- 4 The Political Crisis
- 5 The Economic Crisis
- 6 Political Stories
- 7 Economic Stories
- 8 Choosing
- 9 The Ethics of Responsibility
- 10 Refraining
- 11 Dissembling
- 12 What Now?
- Afterword
- Index
3 - The Enlightenment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 September 2023
- Post-Truth American Politics
- Post-Truth American Politics
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Note on cover image
- 1 Getting Started
- 2 Stories
- 3 The Enlightenment
- 4 The Political Crisis
- 5 The Economic Crisis
- 6 Political Stories
- 7 Economic Stories
- 8 Choosing
- 9 The Ethics of Responsibility
- 10 Refraining
- 11 Dissembling
- 12 What Now?
- Afterword
- Index
Summary
The progressive thinkers of the Enlightenment rejected Christian Europe’s standard Stories which justified rule by monarchs, aristocrats, and clergy. They promoted instead reason rather than tradition and science rather than theology. Their faith in human agency, as expressed by thinkers such as Voltaire, Diderot, Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton, amounted to a project based on Humanism. Later, Max Weber pointed out that this part of the Enlightenment amounted to an onset of disenchantment.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Post-Truth American PoliticsFalse Stories and Current Crises, pp. 32 - 42Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023