In my recent post on ‘Rethinking the idea of Christian Europe’, I mentioned the debate between the Radical and the mainstream Enlightenment, a debate superbly explored by Jonathan Israel in his books Radical Enlightenment and Enlightenment Contested. The mainstream Enlightenment of Kant, Locke, Voltaire and Hume is the one of which we know and which provides the public face of the Enlightenment. But it was the Radical Enlightenment, shaped by lesser-known figures such as d’Holbach, Diderot, Condorcet and, in particular, […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Free Speech, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: atheism, christianity, enlightenment, free speech, freedom of worship, jonathan israel, liberties, locke, radical enlightenment, religion, secularism, spinoza, tolerance