Enlightenment and enlightenment; science and revelation as authorities.

NATURE..

  1. Historically there have been many groups that have proclaimed themselves to be enlightened.
    1. Established priesthoods of the ANE; interpreting divine revelation; privileged priethoods with a monopoly on learning and education [not true of Greek city states].
    2. Christian and Muslin missionaries / apostles. Authority rested on their claim to direct communication with divine being, their task was to spread the word of God.
    3. Medieval clergy, keepers of the word of god, the interpreters of the divinely revealed truth = dogma. Monopoly of all education
    4. Princes and monarchs who claimed to rule by divine right; what this meant was that these authoritarian rulers claimed their legitimation came from God, hence they embodied the state, were above the law, and to be the ultimate owners of all property in their dominions.
    5. The modern guru: like Moses, a prophet. Someone with great and or special knowledge and authority; is also considered by his followers to be enlightened; to provide guidance; has followers. Consider the case of Harold Camping. Rapture set for 21 May 2011:."All the signs that Jesus warned of in the Bible that would precede His return have taken place, and are evident in our world. For example, the re-establishment of the nation of Israel; the complete decay of the church; the dismal state of our world; and the moral breakdown of all of society.
  2. Darwin's theory of natural selection was consistent with a number of visions of European transcendance.
    1. The Calvinist / Protestant Ethic: the Calvinist theologians taught that only those who were predestined to be saved would be saved. Since it was impossible to know who was predestined, the notion developed that it might be possible to discern that a person was elected (predestined) by observing his/her way of life. Hard work and frugality were thought to be two important consequences of being one of the elect. Protestants were thus attracted to these qualities and supposed to strive for reaching them. The success of the northern Europeans was then a sign of their predestined and God-ordained salvation ...and the failure of the rest of mankind??
    2. to some this triumph of Europeans over others was not based on values [liberty, rule of law, equality before the law, property rights, work ethic, secular / scientific approach, etc.] of the Enlightenment, but rather on some innate superiority of Europeans; that their demonstrable skills in finance and/or politics represented their innate 'biological' superiority in the struggle for survival
      1. some 'enlightened' people perceived that this innate superiority was based on 'scientific fact' [and thereby, lost track of the values that had produced the expansion of civil liberties, the rise of standard of living, a consumer culture].
      2. But there was no consistent European perspective on this problem; Ferry and many others believed that the 'inferior' peoples were indeed capable of being saved [Christianized] and being raised to European level standard of living = E with a patronizing flavor.
      3. to still other enlightened parties it was the obligation of the state to insure that those best adapted for success in the struggle should breed ever greater numbers of themselves; and that social misfits/criminals/outcasts not breed at all. "The business of the corporate state is eugenics," as one prominent politician put it.
    3. NOTE: in the Darwinian model there is no difference between humans and other species [aka: the 'materialist' perspective].
      1. Humans represent one line of selection based on random variations over a very long time.
      2. Darwinish appears to be an explicit denial of the values of The Enlightenment and of the Judeo-Christian ethics namely that human beings made in the image of God, are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights (also Declaration of the Rights of Man), and have dominion over the earth.
      3. In essence: The core values of The Enlightenment and of the Judeo-Christian tradition assume that human beings are different from animals in some way. Recall where Burke is standing as he ends his presentation...
  3. The Lamarckian Variant on Evolution. Acquired characteristics can be passed on to biological descendants.
    1. An attractive theory to many 'enlightened' members the elite classes, for it meant that their acquired skills in finance and/or politics could be passed on to their descendants, and used to justify their superior social positions. It was a scientific fact that those successful in the struggle for survival were indeed those most fit for dominion. This belief, as Burke suggests, found many adherents in Atlantic countries during the first half of the 20th Cent.
    2. It also played a central role in Soviet planning,
      1. it is a scientific fact that history / evolution is/are moving in a particular direction [Marxist Leninist Materialism claimed], the truly enlightened understand that direction and will act to promote its realization...that is,
      2. it is reasonable for enlightened people to force /accelerate the pace of transformation, it is for it is the goal of evolution and therefore must be a " good" for all mankind
      3. The creation of the New Soviet Man was based on the conviction of that the enlightened members of the CP-USSR (to name but one) could bring about the changes in the masses, that the masses would acquire the characteristics necessary to insure the success of the proletarian revolution. Those who were not capable of acquiring those traits [like the kulaks] had to be ruthlessly removed.
  4. In Sum:
    1. The elites of the Enlightenment are a very mixed group, but in the best sense they did not have a plan to insure of "End-state Justice" = Utopia, though they promoted the adoption of procedural means to a better world.
    2. Others, the 'enlightened', believed that the end state, Utopia, is known through revelation or science, and that accelerating the process is justifiable.