2020-06-29
23 分钟For more information and full transcripts of the podcast, check out philosophisethis.org.
For updates about new episodes, check out Instagram at philosophisethispodcast, all one word, on X at I am Stephen West.
Be well, and I hope you love the show today.
So when the Enlightenment began, the hope was that through the process of scientific rationality,
we would be gradually but steadily moving forward towards several very important goals.
Freedom on a level never before witnessed by human beings.
The promise of societies with levels of equality never before witnessed.
Through the ongoing process of using science to refine the systems of thought that surrounded us,
the Enlightenment promised higher levels of efficiency, more sophisticated levels of technology.
What the Enlightenment sold to people was the expectation that every day
that a human being lived hints forth would be a day lived in the direction of progress,
constantly moving forward towards a better world.
Now, one thing that's absolutely clear is that when it comes to delivering on a lot of these promises,
credit where credit's due, the Enlightenment did what it set out to do, and it did it pretty well.
Not many people question the level of impact the Enlightenment had, because,
I mean, quite frankly, if it produced little to no results,
not only would there not be as many naysayers,
but there'd be no reason to delineate between pre-modern and modern if we weren't talking about two very distinct eras.
Make no mistake, the Enlightenment delivered like an essential worker here.
Science was all the rage in the early Enlightenment, and when people saw the kind of results it was getting,