The “Heresy” In The Age Of Enlightenment

During the French Enlightenment,the Enlightenment thinkers opened up a new path for the new era,replacing the divine nature with reason,eliminating superstition with science,replacing reincarnation with linearity,and making progress to break this day.Enlightenment thinkers adhere to the absolute law of reason,apply the absolute thought of science,construct an absolute linear path,and implement an absolute concept of progress.The Middle Ages became the opposite of the absolute denial of the legitimacy of enlightenment.Under the rule of enlightenment discourse hegemony,the European Middle Ages was a “dark age” that had become a well-known popular concept.The modern world opened by the Enlightenment was regarded as the “bright” era completely separated from the past.Since the middle of the 20 th century,the academic world has liberated from the extreme negation of the Middle Ages and the warm praise of the Enlightenment,Therefore,the popular opinion of the Middle Ages as a dark age gradually disintegrated.In fact,as early as the early days of the Enlightenment,the voice of the “dark medieval” view against the enlightenment thinkers had emerged.The French scholars who made Jean Chapelain a typical representative opposed the Enlightenment rationalists' total rejection of medieval thought and advocated a re-examination and evaluation of the Middle Ages.Contrary to enlightenment rationalism,from the perspective of perceptual experience and romanticism,Chapelain explored the social culture and moral spirit of the Middle Ages and concluded that the Middle Ages were not “dark” and barbaric,but initiated by the Enlightenment,Modern society is not an era of absolute“brightness”and progress.Chapelain's medieval views were strongly criticized by enlightenment thinkers who opposed the medieval acquittal of Chapelain in the name of historical progress and marked the Middle Ages with incomparably dark labels.In contrast,the Enlightenment has made great achievements,and the light of scientific rationality shines in the depths of this darkness.Under the rule of enlightenment discourse hegemony,Chapelain's view of the Middle Ages was regarded as the “heresy” of that era and was buried.The medieval “Millennium Darkness”became a common-sense discourse.Chapelain's medieval view is a positive reversal of the enlightenment thinkers' prejudice against the Middle Ages.There is no doubt that this is the liquidation agent of the era of rationalism and blind negation.In addition,Chapelain's academic concept has laid an important foundation for the objective and rational study of the Middle Ages in the academic world for centuries.The medieval view of Chapelain provided the source of thought for the creation of romanticism in the late 18 th century,and gave birth to the consciousness of “historicism”.It was precisely because of the influence and promotion of the concept of historicism that the Middle Ages began to be grasped by the historians in the long river of human history.The veil of the Middle Ages was revealed and its value was revealed.This article focuses on the medieval view of Chapelain,and hopes to further understand the progress and “light” of the Middle Ages through the elaboration and analysis of Chapelain's medieval view,and to further understand the “dark medieval” view of the Enlightenment thinkers.Form,anti-history and the limitations of enlightenment.