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Full Idea
What is common to most of the main thinker of the Enlightenment is the view that virtue consists ultimately in knowledge.
Gist of Idea
Most Enlightenment thinkers believed that virtue consists ultimately in knowledge
Source
Isaiah Berlin (The Roots of Romanticism [1965], Ch.2)
Book Ref
Berlin,Isaiah: 'The Roots of Romanticism' [Pimlico 2000], p.25
A Reaction
I have always found this view (which seems to originate with Socrates) rather sympathetic. What is so frustrating about cheerful optimists who smoke cigarettes is not the weakness of will or strong desires, but their apparent failure of understanding.
| 7662 | Romanticism is the greatest change in the consciousness of the West [Berlin] |
| 7664 | The Greeks have no notion of obligation or duty [Berlin] |
| 7663 | Judaism and Christianity views are based on paternal, family and tribal relations [Berlin] |
| 7665 | Most Enlightenment thinkers believed that virtue consists ultimately in knowledge [Berlin] |
| 7676 | If we are essentially free wills, authenticity and sincerity are the highest virtues [Berlin] |
| 7677 | Central to existentialism is the romantic idea that there is nothing to lean on [Berlin] |
| 7460 | The great moments are the death of Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Romanticism [Berlin, by Watson] |
| 20544 | Berlin distinguishes 'negative' and 'positive' liberty, and rejects the latter [Berlin, by Swift] |