Tsinghua University Professor Ren Jiantao Lecture: England and Scotland in the Modern Enlightenment | CBCGDF Live/University Salon

On September 22, 2024, at 20:30 Beijing Time, the 215th University Salon will be broadcast live on the CBCGDF platform.

When comparing and observing types of enlightenment, the empirically orientated Scottish Enlightenment is often seen as superior to the rationally orientated French Enlightenment. However, the English Enlightenment should not be excluded. The original significance of the English Enlightenment is underestimated, the ameliorative significance of the Scottish Enlightenment is overestimated, and the limits of the French Enlightenment are exaggerated when the three types of Enlightenment are compared. As in the case of the two British Enlightenments alone, the modern originality, enlightenment tone, belief relevance, and functional validity of the English Enlightenment are higher than those of the Scottish Enlightenment. The Scottish Enlightenment is the spawn of the English Enlightenment, but highlights the special value of the moral and economic orientations. It is a structural filler. This reflects the political-economic duality of the Enlightenment and the sequential order of development. The conviction of the English Enlightenment and the empirical nature of the Scottish Enlightenment have their own merits and demerits. The empirical and utilitarian orientation of the Scottish Enlightenment led to historicism and socialism, and influenced the post-modern direction, thus revealing the complexity of its historical role. In order to face the whole Enlightenment, it is necessary to pay homage to England and pay tribute to Scotland, and to have a large historical perspective.

Speaker: Ren Jiantao. Ren Jiantao is a professor at the Department of Political Science, Tsinghua University, and a Distinguished Professor of the Ministry of Education. His main research fields are political philosophy, Chinese and Western political thought and Chinese politics. 

Reviewed by Tan Ankui. Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the School of Politics and Public Affairs Management, Sun Yat-sen University, and Doctor of Philosophy of Peking University. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago and Harvard-Yenching Institute. Mainly researches on political philosophy. Author of several books, including The Legacy of Natural Rights.

Moderator: Zhou Lian. Professor at the School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China, and Doctor of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Harvard-Yenching Institute. Mainly researches on political philosophy, moral philosophy and philosophy of language. He is the author of "The Justification Basis of Modern Politics" and other books.

Baidu Live Link: https://live.baidu.com/m/media/pclive/pchome/live.html?room_id=9587196301&source=h5pre

Edited by: Samantha  

Contact: v10@cbcgdf.org; +8617319454776

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