"... how was it possible, that the Enlightenment has been victorious?"
... it has achieved only this. That it itself, that is, that the already enlightened human being, is immune to miracles; it has created a position that is unreachable by miracles. But a miracle is, according to its own meaning, only capable of being experienced as a miracle on the foundation of faith — and thereby, the Enlightenment offensive is thus rendered impotent. At this point, ... it becomes clear that the Enlightenment does not owe its victory to assertions of the scientific refutation of revealed religion. It owes its victory to a certain will, which one may, with a grain of salt, characterize as Epicurean. This will seems to me to be no foundational justification for the Enlightenment, against revealed religion ... [my emphasis].
--Leo Strauss, letter to Krueger, 7 January 1930
No comments:
Post a Comment