Abstract
We live in a time of uncertainty and transition. Some would claim that Enlightenment has already died (Kissinger, in Bendyk 2018, and Agata Bielik-Robson 2019), and its values are no longer relevant to our values. However, quite recently, some outstanding scientists, like Steven Pinker (2018), have published a good defence of the Enlightenment, claiming instead that we need the Enlightenment values. What follows is a quick overview of the defences of the Enlightenment from Adorno, Horkheimer and Habermas, and Todorov, Nussbaum and others to Pinker, arguing for pragmatic rationality. Rationality, even if it is impossible to define it with any universality from the objectivist point of view (Cartesian rationalism is impossible to defend), then it may function, together with human dignity, as a multi-faced criterium for intersubjective reality and tolerant, peaceful society.
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