Monday, December 30, 2019

do we idolize the Enlightenment?

This Prager U. video claims the Enlightenment isn't all it was cracked up to be:


There are claims in the above video that are worth examining. I'm not sure I'm totally convinced by the argument as presented (e.g., we can use history, tradition, and experience to justify slavery), but I'm willing to explore some of the argument's details.

Your thoughts?

ADDENDUM: I ask because there are conservatives like Dr. Vallicella who purport to espouse Enlightenment values. See here, for example:
My brand of conservatism could be called American. It aims to preserve and where necessary restore the values and principles codified by the founders. Incorporating as it does elements of classical liberalism and libertarianism, American conservatism is far from throne-and-altar reaction. While anti-theocratic, it is not anti-religious. It stands for individual liberty and its necessary supports, private property, free markets, and limited government. It is liberal in its stress on liberties, but conservative in its sober view of human nature, a nature easily corrupted by power and in need of restraint. It avoids the reactionary and radical extremes. It incorporates the values of the Enlightenment. American conservatism presupposes the existence of “unalienable rights” which come from nature or from “nature's God.” First among the liberties mentioned in the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution is religious liberty which includes the liberty to exercise no religion. It is first in the order of exposition and (arguably) first also in the order of importance. The second liberty mentioned is free speech. Both of these classically American values are under assault from the utopian Left which has taken over the Democrat party in the USA.


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