Enlightenment

  1. … capitalism, like science and liberal democracy, was an outgrowth of the Enlightenment. Its principal theorists, even its most prosperous practitioners, believed capitalism to be based on the idea that both buyer and seller are sufficiently mature, well informed and reasonable to engage in transactions of mutual self-interest.
    Neil Postman
  2. Skepticism is the principal legacy of the Enlightenment. There is nothing more profound to do than to carry that legacy forward by making and effort at conveying it to our young.
    Neil Postman
  3. The idea of progress, then, is one of the great gifts of the Enlightenment. The eighteenth century invented it, elaborated it, and promoted it, and in doing so generated vast resources of vitality, confidence, and hope. But the eighteenth century also criticized and doubted it, initiating powerful arguments about its limitations and pitfalls.
    Neil Postman