What was the Enlightenment according to Dorinda Outram in her book The Enlightenment?

Maureen Powlowski

Dorinda Outram takes up the definition of the Enlightenment in the first chapter of her
book, entitled ; however, the title of the chapter is actually, "What
is Enlightenment," not "What is the
Enlightenment."

Why "Enlightenment" and not
"the Enlightenment?" Does it matter? For Outram, it does.
According to the author, the Enlightenment has traditionally been seen by historians as an
entity or a unitary phenomenon. Consequently, the traditional interpretation was replete with
oversimplifications, such as the tendency to see French intellectual developments as typical and
to emphasize certain themes, such as the victory of rationality over faith, through a selective
sampling of the evidence. One might characterize this traditional approach as reductionist and
limited.

For Outram, "the Enlightenment" (or more properly
"Enlightenment," given her argument) was diverse, complex, and geographically
widespread; in fact, it is even arguably still ongoing. In other words, it was not...

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