17th 100 years and the contemporary universe began with an early, upbeat outlook of hope and promise of a better long term, exemplified by movements like the Enlightenment, the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, culminating inside the Information Age group, environmental understanding and globalisation. It is during this period that a paradigm shift coming from faith (religion) to purpose as the principal source of capacity and expert occurred (Badger). The switch occurred up against the backdrop of ideals just like science, threshold, liberty, democracy, secularism, cost-free will and humanism. Nevertheless , the period is also scared with false starts off and failures, violent schisms, world battles, imperialism, terrorism, irrational nationalism, extreme faith based war, data overload, air pollution and the danger of elemental annihilation that indicate failure of the rational model promised by the Enlightenment. On the philosophy of this dichotomy of wish and failing, this article critically demonstrates the failing of the Enlightenment project, specifically from a social and moral point of view. The essay particularly thinks how Enlightenment has led to the destruction of morality.
In his book, After Virtue, Scottish philosopher Alasdair Macintyre gives a strong assertion that the Enlightenment project hasn’t succeeded in fulfilling it is promise and has brought on the disorder of moral principles in the modern Western society. Macintyre particularly argues that overemphasis on individuality and totally free choice offers resulted in a shift by virtue integrity to rule-governed ethics; and from communitarianism to a social individualism, thus destroying values. In a related vein, Maximum Horkheimer and Theodor Aderezo argue inside their book Dialectic of Enlightenment that humankind, instead of advancing towards a truly human point out, has been descending into a new version of barbarism, and this Enlightenment is essentially to blame (p. xi). The explanation for this is that though Enlightenment has inculcated a traditions of explanation, it has concurrently undermined values (Rasmussen 3).
Rasmussen additional points out that Enlightenment offers weakened religious beliefs and tradition without featuring alternatives conserve for what he terms as being a misguided self-confidence in reason (p. 3). Instead of promoting for a reformation of the existing traditions, recommends of Enlightenment envisaged a brand new society wherever faith and tradition may have no place. Even though the contribution created by reason for the advancement worldwide in all spheres – from political to economic and social – cannot be undervalued, the danger on this viewpoint is the fact it neglects the historical and social context through which mankind is embedded (Bunnin and Yu 210). In fact , as explained by Rasmussen, this kind of viewpoint typically results in precarious social anatomist (p. 3). The danger inherent in exchanging