enlightenment
(ɛnˈlaɪt(ə)nmənt)
[f. as prec. + -ment.]
1. The action of enlightening; the state of being enlightened. Only in fig. sense (see enlighten v. 5). The imparting or receiving mental or spiritual light.
| 1669 Le Blanc in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lxxxiv. 13 His lightnings, that is his divine enlightenments, are best seen. 1798 Month. Mag. VI. 554 A truth..the power of comprehending which implies a high degree of enlightenment. 1846 W. H. Mill Five Sermons (1848) 5 The highest spiritual enlightenment. 1855 Dickens Lett. (1880) I. 398, I should be ready to receive enlightenment from any source. 1860 Froude Hist. Eng. V. 3 He imagined.. that an age of enlightenment was at hand. 1881 W. Collins Bl. Robe I. ii. 16, I needed no further enlightenment. |
2. Sometimes used [after Ger. Aufklärung, Aufklärerei] to designate the spirit and aims of the French philosophers of the 18th c., or of others whom it is intended to associate with them in the implied charge of shallow and pretentious intellectualism, unreasonable contempt for tradition and authority, etc.
| 1865 J. H. Stirling Secret of Hegel p. xxvii, Deism, Atheism, Pantheism, and all manner of isms due to Enlightenment. Ibid. p. xxviii, Shallow Enlightenment, supported on such semi-information, on such weak personal vanity, etc. 1889 Caird Philos. Kant I. 69 The individualistic tendencies of the age of Enlightenment. |