The Enlightenment and Its Enemies

Abstract

The first part of this article addresses some of the semantic and conceptual problems that plague the terms the Enlightenment and the Counter-Enlightenment to tidy up their use and clarify their meaning. The second part assesses some of the most common and important criticisms that have been made of the Enlightenment by its enemies since the 18th century. It concludes that although the portraits of the Enlightenment that have been sketched by its enemies during the course of the centuries are often crude caricatures or grotesque distortions, they have scored some palpable hits against it, making it very hard for us to swallow the Enlightenment whole now.