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[44] Ian Buruma — Where Did the West Begin?
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Ian Buruma is a historian, biographer, memorialist and essayist between “East” and “West" whose insights and intellectual precision make him a joy to discuss with. In his recent biography of Spinoza he argues that the great Enlightenment philosopher has a message that is more urgent today than ever. The idea of a West, of a realm of rational rule and individual choice, of emancipation and liberty, began with these early Enlightenment thinkers as well as with Protestantism which eliminated the priest as intermediary between God and his people, making the relationship to the divine a matter based on individual conscience and personal choice. But what is left of this great utopia in a time in which democracies appear to collapse and the legacy of the Enlightenment seems in crisis? Do these ideals and principles still have the power to carry a social consensus, as well as societies and states, or is this the beginning of the sunset of Enlightened thinking?
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