Abstract:

This article discusses Antoine Lilti’s contribution to the historiography of the Enlightenment. Based on the discussion of part of his work, with emphasis on his latest book, L’Heritage de Lumières (2019), it is argued that this represents a very welcome renewal in the field, both in theoretical-methodological and narrative terms. Combining the strands of intellectual history and social and cultural history, Lilti articulates an alternative interpretation of the Enlightenment to that of the genealogy of liberalism. Placed from the perspective of a critical hermeneutic, and in dialogue with post-colonial criticism, Lilti’s interpretation seeks to answer the question of the presentness of the Enlightenment in the contemporary global and plural world, in which Western modernity has lost its status as a universal model.

Keywords:
Enlightenment; History of Historiography; Intellectual History