How Activist Should Enlightenment Studies Be? Examples to Consider From Three Centuries

Abstract

Those who pursue enlightenment want to change and shape their society. This was true for the Enlightenment thinkers of the 18^th century and also for many who later looked back on it, including scholars – right up to the present day. Activism can motivate efforts to gain knowledge, but it can also restrict it. The article explores this problem in a series of interlinked case studies: after a brief prelude with the Halle philosophers of the 18^th century, first with the left-wing Hegelians in the 19^th century and then with the Enlightenment research of the GDR, where individual prominent scholars were collaborators of the secret service, the Stasi. It concludes with reflections on how ideological constrictions can be avoided through pluralism.