Che cos’è l’…Aufklärung? Note in margine a un recente volume

The 2010 issue of Hermeneutica contains the proceedings of the conference Cos’è l’Illuminsmo? held in Urbino in 2009, with an introduction by Piergiorgio Grassi. The fourteen articles (plus the translations of an essay by D‟Alembert and one by Eberhard) explore both the many faces of Enlightenment and the manifold approaches to this phenomenon in past and present critical literature. Reflection inspired by this volume shows both the deep persisting relevance of Enlightenment to our present concerns, and its wide conceptual scope: the different names it is given in different languages may refer to (1) a historical movement, (2) its ideas, (3) an event or course of events, (4) the positive aspects of (1), (2), and (3), or (5) a meta-historical category. Moreover, these are typically cluster concepts, characterized by family resemblances, and the question “What is Enlightenment?” may be understood as (a) analytic or conceptual, or (b) empirical, or (c) evaluative. The relationships between Enlightenment and Christianity emerge as a paramount question, deeply involving our conceptions of the two relata. In particular, asking if Enlightenment is compatible with Christianity is of a piece with asking if it is self-consistent, or harbours the premises of its own overturning, as argued by Horkheimer and Adorno.