Neo-hellenic enlightenment

in search of a European identity

Manolis Patiniotis

pp. 117-130

in: Theodore Arabatzis, Jürgen Renn, Ana Simoes (eds), Relocating the history of science, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

The Neo-Hellenic Enlightenment of the late eighteenth century is a local version of the Enlightenment associated with the contact of the Greek society with the European philosophical and political thought. According to the received historiography, the exposure to the ideals of the Enlightenment consolidated the Greek national consciousness and gradually led to the great national uprising against the Ottoman rule. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the historical and intellectual circumstances under which this perception was constructed and the implications such a local historiographic enterprise might have for the Enlightenment studies at large.