The Legacy of the Enlightenment

Going against the grain, this refreshing book argues for a non-ideological portrait of the Enlightenment as having been, above all else, a self-critical enterprise.

The Enlightenment has come under substantial attack over the past several years, with some going so far as to recommend leaving its thinkers—and their Eurocentric prejudices—behind. On the other hand, the most orthodox defenders of the Enlightenment insist that its values are not just foundational but indispensable and that leaving them behind means opening the door to nihilism and relativism. For Antoine Lilti, one of the leading scholars of the French Enlightenment, both sides are wrong.

In this remarkable series of essays, Lilti emphasizes a non-dogmatic, non-ideological view of the Enlightenment—one that sees its legacy as a critical, subversive attitude that can and should serve as its own best critic. Along the way, he engages with everyone from Rousseau and Kant to Foucault and Habermas, as well as prominent contemporary scholars such as Jonathan Israel. The result is a new reading of the Enlightenment that breathes life into old debates and offers an alternative way to engage with canonical thinkers and traditions that is both honest about the past and useful for the future.