Enlightened Prince?

Posted by Chris on 9 February 2010 | 2 Comments

Tags: Enlightenment 2.0

Prince Charles has now declared himself an enemy of the Enlightenment http :// www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7013764.ece . He doesn’t say which of its fruits he dislikes; whether it be free speech, modern science, liberal democracy, human rights (abolition of slavery), women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights or the constitution of the United States; and neither does he say with what he would replace reason as the guiding principle – except perhaps some vague concept of ‘holism’, too ill-defined to be capable of being judged rational or not. But he thinks that the time has come for Enlightenment ideas, now two hundred years old, to be re-examined (never mind that those of hereditary monarchy are even older).
 
What I doubt that he realizes though is that these ideas are being examined and developed by a lot of serious people. As one example, I would commend  http://thesciencenetwork.org/programs/beyond-belief-enlightenment-2-0   This was an event that took place a couple of years ago, and involved over thirty world-class speakers. The introductory blurb says the following:
 
The aim of Beyond Belief: Enlightenment 2.0 is to invite participants to undertake together an ongoing reconnaissance of Enlightenment ideas in the light of advances in primarily cognitive neurosciences, evolutionary biology, physics etc. though not by any means scanting history, philosophy, law. The word reconnaissance is used advisedly. The hope is to explore our current sense of Reason, Truth, Belief, Human Nature, Progress, Virtue and the Good Life in this light. It could be argued that the Enlightenment was not quite the disaster that some critics have suggested, and that version 2.0, and subsequent releases, could conceivably be a dynamic improvement if we set our minds to it, guided by that eudaemonic impulse.
 
It was a three day event, so will require stamina to watch it all, but just dipping in would be worthwhile.