Rachel Kennedy on the Global Enlightenment Forum
Following our individual research papers, the Global Enlightenment Forum served as the perfect culmination of collective academic thought surrounding the topic of Enlightenment philosophy and the contemporary Middle East. Through attending the forum, I now have a greater appreciation of the depth of research behind this topic, and how difficult it is to produce a direct answer to the question: “How can the ideas of the Enlightenment become embedded into geographies in which they did not originate?” It is a topic that becomes illuminated through discussion, and cannot be isolated in one’s own mind.
The two other winners of the competition and I were given the opportunity to present our papers to an audience at the forum. While we each approached the question in a different way, our conclusions were aligned in terms of complexity, as they were weighted more heavily on deductive recommendations rather than absolute judgements. You cannot just place liberal democracy fueled by Enlightenment ideals in that region and expect it to interact with and produce results that mirror the Western World. It would be impossible without first understanding the historical, cultural, and spiritual nuances of the region.
In my paper, I highlighted three ideas that Enlightenment philosophy gave rise to, and how their application in the Western World was a necessary condition for success. Without the Enlightenment, the United States would cease to exist as it is today because balancing political power and self-determination were essential components that allowed it to succeed. To protect the freedoms that are promised, the first condition for the Arab World to implement Enlightenment ideals is in the form of a constitution with sufficient checks and balances, an idea influenced by Montesquieu.
While separation of powers written within a stable constitution is mandatory to protect the will of the people, the separation of religion from governance is also needed to further the positive effects of freedom and prosperity. This idea, influenced by John Locke and included in the U.S. Constitution, is also mirrored by Adam Smith who believed a nation prospers with free trade and competition just as it prospers under religious freedom. Lastly, both Adam Smith and David Hume were proponents of limiting government control and regulation, fostering a strong middle class, promoting trade, and diversifying exports to sustain economic freedom.
The themes that were drawn up from the Enlightenment are universally applicable to any country that places individual liberty on par with life itself. The possibility exists for these ideas to embed themselves in the Arab World providing government tyranny is prohibited from permeating into foundational governance, life, and economic progress. When writing this paper, I found myself in a consistent loop of asking “why” and wanting to learn more to further explore these themes. I think that is the ultimate expression of what the Enlightenment was all about; questioning and reasoning to reconcile those capabilities which are given to the citizen by God, all the while living within a man-made system of governance that is constantly trying to take for itself what was divinely given to the human being.
Rachel Katherine Kennedy