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N=270. Enlightenment (18th c) is most popular candidate for West at its Best followed by Greek antiquity. I think there’s an actual right answer here (Modernist, #3 at 25%), but only 11% think the postmodern era is the West at its Best.
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Poll: What do you consider the most fertile and productive period in the European intellectual tradition?
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I think there was some tension between "fertile" and "productive". . . If you leaned to productive, I get saying Modernist period wins. I paused between Modernist and Enlightenment, but thought of rule of law and Newtonian mechanics as particularly fertile.
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He and Lincoln were both born on my birthday --in 1809 -- so there is love there. But Modernity might just be when we got really good at using concentrated energy to tear up the planet, and Darwin insights area mixed blessing. Social Darwinism is a misinterpretation ++
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It ain’t a good idea until it is revealed to be actually dangerous. That’s why I think enlightenment era output (modulo Newton and a few others) is over-rated. West broke away from the rest with Modernity. Enlightenment era stuff has good global competitors.
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