The Enlightenment

A broad intellectual and philosophical movement of the 17th-18th century centered on reason, progress, and liberty. These claims use it to examine its internal diversity, its assumptions about European superiority, its role in facilitating empire and colonization, and its expansion of secular racist discourse in the American colonies.

Claims that use this term

• The Enlightenment assumed European society was the apex of human achievement
• The Enlightenment holds a shared substrate despite its internal diversity
• The Enlightenment was instrumental in building empire and colonization projects
• The Enlightenment secularized and expanded racist discourse in the American colonies.
• The Enlightenment provided both the explanation and the measure of human progress
• The Enlightenment accepts only what conforms to computation and utility