At a distance of two hundred and fifty years since the high point of the Enlightenment it is possible to look back and paint a bright picture of the era in broad interpretative strokes about which there is a great deal of agreement among scholars: the emphasis on the universality of reason; the shaking off of 'external' authorities; the belief in the universality of human nature and a brave attempt to focus on what unites, rather than divides us; a rejection of 'prejudice' in all its forms; an emphasis on toleration and the search for simplicity in religion; a general belief in progress and the rejection of all that appeared to hinder it. This is Enlightenment as Kant saw it: the emergence of humanity from the darkness and dependency of its self-imposed infancy to the brightness and freedom of adulthood.
But it is also possible to see another side of the Enlightenment: a concept of reason which appears to mirror a particular ideal of detached, male, rationality; a failure to realize in practice the high ideals of equality and toleration; a naive belief that advances in science and technology could solve many onerous human problems; a devaluing of the emotional, affective and self-expressive dimensions of the human person; a simplistic understanding of religion which failed to take account of the importance of tradition, ritual and due authority and which unfairly misrepresented the views and practices of the Jesuits and others; a caricature of the past which portrayed it the mediaeval period in particular as stagnant and hidebound by authority. (Kramnick, Isaac, 1995)
