THE BRITISH ACADEMY,
established by Royal Charter in 1902, champions and supports the humanities and social sciences. It is an independent, self-governing fellowship of scholars elected for their distinction and achievement.
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The Redescription of the Enlightenment
This lecture took place on 30 October 2003
Professor John Pocock, FBA, The Johns Hopkins University
This is a study of the changes that have occurred in the concept of Enlightenment in the light of research and re-interpretation during the last thirty years. Two questions arise. Is it useful any longer to speak of ‘The Enlightenment’ as a single coherent movement or phenomenon, ad why is there so strong a disposition to do so? In the light of our answer to this double-barrelled question, what is the present status of Isaiah Berlin’s celebrated antithesis between an Enlightenment devoted to the rational study of all phenomena of nature including the human, and a counter-Enlightenment presenting the latter in a context of history?
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