The relationship between the Enlightenment and liberalism and its role in shaping modern liberal democracy is well known. Far less well known is the very strong connection between the Enlightenment, it's proponents and Freemasonry.
"Our analysis reveals that:
(1) All famous leaders of the Enlightenment had connections to Freemasonry;
(2) The Enlightenment tenets overlap Freemasonry tenets, and, therefore they were supported and propagated by English, French, and American lodges;
(3) Freemasonry progressively turned into a transnational vehicle for liberal thinking, disseminating the concepts of property and freedom in Europe and across the Atlantic.
Also, we cannot ignore the striking coincidences that are claiming the appurtenance to the discussed organizational system and philosophy; very powerful personalities who have revolutionized the scientific and socio-political fields were Freemasons.
Although there are many authors who tried to direct their writings to the ideas of intrigue, conspiracy, world domination plans or mystical grounds, we have chosen to expose a positive, unbiased version of the facts. Thereby we consider that Freemasonry offered and continues to offer to its members a particular spiritual and moral perspective, which encourages the freedom of conscience and progressive thinking.
Today, the organization still works as a social network, reuniting important personalities from all over the world and channeling its efforts to charity. By making an analogy to the cohesion of the freemasons and their fierce allegiance to the liberal purposes during the Enlightenment, we can imagine the current strength of any of their deliberated actions. After all, the accomplishment of an ideal depends on the number and force of its partisan."
From : "Reason, Liberty and Science. The Contribution of Freemasonry to the Enlightenment" , Mădălina Calance, Doctoral School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Iasi
http://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/hssr/3/2/article-p111.xml
Responses
« Back to index | View thread »