> I'd love to quote your comment elsewhere, if you don't mind. Sure. > [the ideas of the Englightenment] originated in the West I would say they first took r

> I'd love to quote your comment elsewhere, if you don't mind. Sure. > [the ideas of the Englightenment] originated in the West I would say they first took root and lasted long enough to have impact in the West. As you say, the ideas of the Enlightenment are universal moral principles that aren't really tied to specific culture, a sort of political version of the Golden Rule. It might even have been the state of nature before agriculture and townships gave rise to kingships and states. We didn't used to be slaves to The Man. To harp on the theme of this thread, things could have gone very differently if Mo Di's philosophy became the official state belief instead of Confucius' legalism: https://www.ancient.eu/Mo_Ti/ https://www.ancient.eu/Mo_Ti/