There Was No Counter-Enlightenment

This essay serves as the opening comment in a discussion on the concept of the Counter-Enlightenment. The author argues that the Counter-Enlightenment is an ambiguous concept with a flimsy historical foundation. He also argues that the Counter-Enlightenment creates a binary that would not have been recognized by eighteenth-century thinkers. He draws on archival research from academic prize contests to deconstruct the binary and argue for a more complex view of the Enlightenment.