Comments on: Review: In Defence of the Enlightenment http://harmonist.us/2010/01/review-in-defence-of-the-enlightenment/ Tue, 22 May 2012 13:40:14 +0000 hourly 1 By: Vikram Ramsoondur http://harmonist.us/2010/01/review-in-defence-of-the-enlightenment/comment-page-1/#comment-3322 Vikram Ramsoondur Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:38:14 +0000 http://harmonist.us/?p=4074#comment-3322 It would be disingenuous to blind oneself to the world of good that the Enlightenment has brought not only the West, but in less direct ways, to the major part of the inhabited world. In relation to the ideology which is the most pertinent to the majority of us using this website, the one of devotional personal monotheism as revealed within the Indic tradition, the 'flooding' of much of the planet with the glories of the holy names would barely have been feasible sans that crucial development that occurred in Europe, an ironic by-product of the Enlightenment mythos, for paving the way for a section of Westerners to take up Eastern metaphysic thought was objectively the last thing on the minds of the Goethes, Rousseaux, Montesquieux and other luminaries of their august era. In regard to this review, I can but chime with Gray's assessment of Todorov's fundamental standpoint as comparable with faith-based fanaticism of the most egregious brand, something which appears to have become a common shared characteristic among the most zealous denouncers of religion in the post-modern age. Again, another almost humorous contradiction in itself! It would be disingenuous to blind oneself to the world of good that the Enlightenment has brought not only the West, but in less direct ways, to the major part of the inhabited world. In relation to the ideology which is the most pertinent to the majority of us using this website, the one of devotional personal monotheism as revealed within the Indic tradition, the ‘flooding’ of much of the planet with the glories of the holy names would barely have been feasible sans that crucial development that occurred in Europe, an ironic by-product of the Enlightenment mythos, for paving the way for a section of Westerners to take up Eastern metaphysic thought was objectively the last thing on the minds of the Goethes, Rousseaux, Montesquieux and other luminaries of their august era.

In regard to this review, I can but chime with Gray’s assessment of Todorov’s fundamental standpoint as comparable with faith-based fanaticism of the most egregious brand, something which appears to have become a common shared characteristic among the most zealous denouncers of religion in the post-modern age. Again, another almost humorous contradiction in itself!

]]> By: swami bv tripurari http://harmonist.us/2010/01/review-in-defence-of-the-enlightenment/comment-page-1/#comment-3318 swami bv tripurari Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:02:24 +0000 http://harmonist.us/?p=4074#comment-3318 Individual autonomy must arise out of a sense of our actual interdependence. Otherwise it is false and a very false idea of enlightenment indeed. Individual autonomy must arise out of a sense of our actual interdependence. Otherwise it is false and a very false idea of enlightenment indeed.

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