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Today I learned that some historians include the French Revolution in the Enlightenment. Here is the intro to the Wikipedia article: >European historians tradi
by hollerith 2mo ago
Today I learned that some historians include the French Revolution in the Enlightenment. Here is the intro to the Wikipedia article:
>European historians traditionally dated its beginning with the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715 and its end with the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. Many historians now date the end of the Enlightenment as the start of the 19th century, with the latest proposed year being the death of Immanuel Kant in 1804.
- toyg 2mo agoThat's just a convenient technicality for historians. From wikipedia: "Most scholars use the last years of the century, often choosing the French Revolution or the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1804) as a convenient point in time with which to date the end of the Enlightenment." The French Revolution is deeply grounded in Enlightenment principles.
- hollerith 2mo agoFor admirers of the Enlightenment, it's more than just a convenient technicality to want to avoid including in the Enlightenment a period a political chaos during which about a million people were arrested and about 30-50,000 were killed -- most with very little in the way of due-process rights.
- toyg 2mo agoTo quote an Italian meme, "yes, but they also did a few bad things".