The Enlightenment provided both the explanation and the measure of human progress

Evidence

The emergence of an idea of “the West” was central to the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a very European affair. European society, it assumed, was the most advanced type of society on earth, European man the pinnacle of human achievement. It treated the West as the result of forces largely internal to Europe’s history and formation. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 517 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Enlightenment accepts only what conforms to computation and utility; The Enlightenment assumed European society was the apex of human achievement — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 517; Enlightenment social science mapped all world societies onto one West-modeled progress scale (+3 more)

Related

• The Enlightenment assumed European society was the apex of human achievement (similarity 0.92)
• Enlightenment social science mapped all world societies onto one West-modeled progress scale (similarity 0.85)
• Enlightenment social science ranked all societies on one West-defined developmental scale (similarity 0.81)
• The Enlightenment concept posits science as progress and clergy as its obstacle (similarity 0.79)
• Enlightenment thought ranked all societies on one universal civilizational scale. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The Enlightenment assumed European society was the apex of human achievement #expands (0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 517
• Enlightenment social science mapped all world societies onto one West-modeled progress scale #expands (0.85)
• Enlightenment social science ranked all societies on one West-defined developmental scale #expands (0.85)
• The idea of progress was born when society gained rational control over nature #qualifies (0.75)
• Revisionists inverted the Enlightenment’s progress narrative into one of decay #complicates (0.70) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 527