Knowra Counter-Enlightenment Counter-Enlightenment The Counter-Enlightenment is a varied set of critiques opposing aspects of Enlightenment rationalism, universalism, or reform. Its thinkers emphasized alternatives such as tradition, religion, historical particularity, and feeling.
Johann Georg Hamann : A German philosopher and theologian who criticized abstract reason and emphasized language, faith, and historical particularity. His attacks on Enlightenment rationalism helped shape later German critiques.
Age of Enlightenment : An intellectual movement that emphasized reason, criticism, scientific inquiry, and reform, especially in eighteenth-century Europe. The Counter-Enlightenment defined itself through selective opposition to its ideas and ambitions.
Enlightenment : A broad intellectual movement that promoted reason, inquiry, and criticism of inherited authority. Counter-Enlightenment critiques targeted particular Enlightenment commitments rather than a single unified doctrine.
French Revolution : A period of political upheaval in France beginning in 1789 that ended the monarchy and reshaped European politics. The Revolution gave critiques of abstract political reform a concrete and influential target.
Johann Gottfried Herder : A German philosopher who stressed the historical and cultural distinctiveness of languages and peoples. His account of cultural plurality challenged universal standards of civilization.
Rationalism : The view that reason is a primary source of knowledge and a guide to belief. Critics disputed the claim that reason could govern knowledge and society on its own.
Conservatism : A political tradition that values continuity, inherited institutions, and cautious change. Burke's critique became a major source for conservatism, though the two are not identical.
Historicism : An approach that interprets ideas and institutions in relation to the historical conditions in which they developed. Emphasis on historical particularity helped make context central to later intellectual inquiry.
Edmund Burke : An Anglo-Irish political thinker whose critique of the French Revolution defended inherited institutions and gradual change. His defense of political inheritance became a lasting critique of revolutionary reform.
Universalism : The principle that some truths, rights, or standards apply to all people regardless of circumstance. Opponents challenged universal standards when they erased historical and cultural differences.
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