Enlightenment
Critical Thinking -- Critical Indeed!
Perhaps the greatest legacy of the Western Enlightenment has been the elevation of individual reason and judgment over dogma and received wisdom. The celebration of independent thought -- not to mention independent thought itself -- has played a central role in the rise of both secular government and religious ecumenicalism; in the steady expansion of liberty and civil rights; in the major scientific and economic advances of the last 500 years; and in the philosophical underpinnings of all these achievements.
