One of them considers America the culmination of the Enlightenment, cleaving to a rational philosophy that would indeed exclude religion and its icons from the public square.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

Most of our conversation was grounded by the ideals of enlightenment and richness- this topic did not stray from them, at all.

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Last year, the library took its pick from 140 first-edition Enlightenment classics donated by the family of the Duke of Sachsen-Meiningen.

ECONOMIST: The Duchess Anna Amalia library

From the Enlightenment onwards, the idea of education as an entitlement began to take hold, and curriculums were broadened to include more utilitarian subjects such as the sciences and modern languages.

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Before you ask, I haven't just come back from a spiritual retreat, eager to talk about enlightenment and the meaning of life (I was in Davos, which - trust me - is not the same thing at all).

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The line between San Fernando and Silicon Valley points not only to the intellectual center of world from the 1970s through the 1990s, but intellectual to a degree that bears comparison with Renaissance Italy and Enlightenment Scotland.

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