The achievements of the Enlightenment

 They are under threat

In our party program ① we, “ Europeans for the Planet ” ②, have assigned ourselves main three tasks.

The second mandate is a secondary condition that must be largely fulfilled in our ambitious project: "while preserving our typically European liberal civil liberties ."

What are these “typically European liberal civil liberties”?

Further down in the text we explain:

We want to maintain the civil liberties we have achieved over the past three hundred years since the Enlightenment movement—to the extent possible, at least. This great European achievement is not culturally anchored in large parts of the world. Here, too, it is repeatedly threatened and must be permanently defended.

1. Values of the Enlightenment — What do we mean by them?

The values of the Enlightenment profoundly shape our modern (Western) culture. Many of them are still anchored in our legal and value systems today—for example, in the German Basic Law.

Let us remember: the Enlightenment (17th/18th century) was an intellectual movement that focused on reason, science and critical thinking.

Their core ideas were:

• Reason & scepticism – everything is questioned rationally, nothing is accepted without question ③ .
  
  
• Individual freedom & natural rights – every person has fundamental rights, regardless of origin or rank.
  
  
• Religious freedom & tolerance – freedom of belief and separation of church and state 4 .
  
  
• Progress, education & science – promotion through empirical findings and education.
  
  
• Constitutionality & the Rule of Law – Legitimacy of the state through reason,
   popular sovereignty, separation of powers, and the rule of law. 5

These ideals laid the foundation for modern democracies, human rights and the rule of law.

These were revolutionary new ideas at the time, which were only slowly and initially only incompletely incorporated into our social order, despite fierce resistance from conservative circles. For example, women and slaves were initially, as a matter of course, excluded from the freedoms demanded.

Nevertheless, the demands for equality of rights and popular sovereignty ⑥ ultimately led to the introduction of constitutions , separation of powers , the rule of law and a massive expansion of educational institutions , libraries and universities ⑦ , ⑧ .

These developments mark the beginning of modern Europe, the transition from absolute, traditional rule to a modern, enlightened social order. Expressed in timeless phrases such as "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights ",  "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité ", or "Human dignity is inviolable. Respecting and protecting it is the obligation of all state power" they form a unique foundation for our European civil societies.

2. Anchoring in the German Basic Law

Many of these ideals were explicitly expressed in the German Basic Law ⑨ in 1949, in the immediate post-war context:

• Human Dignity & Human Rights : Article 1 of the Basic Law – "Human dignity is inviolable." The foundation clearly lies in the Enlightenment emphasis on personal rights.
  
  
• Democracy, rule of law and social welfare, separation of powers, federalism : Article 20 of the Basic Law – principles of the state that are directly based on enlightened ideals.
  
  
• Fundamental rights such as freedom of opinion, religion, assembly, occupation, and equality before the law (Articles 1–19 of the Basic Law) are a direct expression of liberal-enlightenment values.
  
  
• The eternity clause (Article 79 (3) GG) protects precisely those fundamental principles – which are intended to last permanently.

All of this seems so obvious to us that it doesn’t really need to be mentioned any further – or does it?

It is also a fact, although not universally accepted, that we humans do not live in isolation, but in communities. Therefore, the individual's claim to freedom cannot be absolute. It is necessary to balance individual freedom against the common good.

And this constant, careful balancing of the needs of the individual and the community leads to different results depending on the demands and risks of our environment.

In these days and in the years ahead, we as humanity face enormous challenges that require more collective action from us. We want to keep the potential restrictions on individual freedom that these may entail as small as possible.

3 Why do we need to defend these values?

As if that weren't challenge enough, since the proclamation of the post-factual age by global retro movements, we have had to recognize that irrationality is rearing its ugly head again and claiming dominance. It is fitting that scientific methods are increasingly being questioned ^⑩. Interested parties are doing so for good reason. Without rational argumentation, we become susceptible to manipulation once again. So, are we heading back to the Middle Ages with modern weapons?

We do not have to stand idly by and watch this happen. After all, we already managed it once 300 years ago. We must mobilize the forces of the Enlightenment once again. But we should remember that it was a political and social development from the outset, driven first by the heretics among the elites and later by the broad masses.

Apparently, we need a new edition of this, an Enlightenment 2.0.

So let's get started.

Let's give reason in politics another chance.

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4 References

①Party Program of the Europeans for the Planet. (2024-11-30). https://eufp.de/2024/11/30/elementor-2626/

• The party program of the „Europeans for the Planet", a contribution on the EuFP-Webpage..

② Europeans for the Planet. (n.d.). home page. https://eufp.de/

• The home page of the EuFP (Europeans for the Planet) provides an overview of topics, resources, and the party's profile.

③ Wikipedia. (n.d.). Age of Enlightenment. In Wikipedia. Retrieved on 2025-09-28, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

• This Wikipedia article provides an overview of the Age of Enlightenment and its key concepts.

④ Wikipedia. (n.d.). “Leitkultur” (dominant culture). In Wikipedia. Retrieved on 2025-09-28, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leitkultur

• The article explains the concept of “Leitkultur” (dominant culture), its origins, debates, and criticism. It is helpful for understanding the initial orientation and controversies surrounding the concept.

⑤ Daston, L. (n.d.). Enlightenment. In E. N. Zalta (Hrsg.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved on 2025-09-28, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/

• A well-founded philosophical overview of the phenomenon of the Enlightenment from the perspective of the history of philosophy, with detailed cross-references and further reading.

⑥ Wikipedia. (n.d.). Prussian virtues. In Wikipedia. Retrieved on 2025-09-28, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_virtues

• The article describes the so-called “Prussian virtues”—discipline, thrift, etc.—and their historical and ideological use.

⑦ Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (n.d.). Enlightenment (European history). In Britannica. Retrieved on the date accessed, from https://www.britannica.com/event/Enlightenment-European-history

• A high-quality, editorially reviewed article on the European Enlightenment with historical context and contextualization—often more reliable than Wikipedia for academic purposes.

⑧ Council on Foreign Relations. (n.d.). education.cfr.org. Retrieved on the date of access, from https://education.cfr.org/

• This CFR platform offers educational resources, events, and analyses on global issues. Particular attention is paid to contributions on the relationship between science, politics, and society.

⑨ Wikipedia. (n.d.). Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. In Wikipedia. Retrieved on the date of access, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Law_for_the_Federal_Republic_of_Germany

• This article presents the structure, history and central contents of the German Basic Law – a helpful introduction.

⑩ Meier, O. (2021, December 19). Freedom of Science: "If we don't change anything, ...". Die Zeit. https://www.zeit.de/wissen/2021-12/freiheit-wissenschaft-bedroht-corona-klima-medien

• A journalistic article that illuminates the importance of academic freedom in times of pandemic, climate crisis, and media discourse. Important for the discussion of science and freedom today.