The choice and form of this research topic were directly encouraged by the fact that cultural, academic and political public does not have a consensus about the sense and the role of the Enlightenment era in the past, neither about the importance of value of Enlightenment for contemporariness and future. Both the Enlightenment as a time limited segment of a national tradition and its value with a more durable and diachronic status are questionable today and they succumb to a critical revalorization in a wide span from radical reception to defending and emphasizing the necessity of its further development and constant affirmation.
The problematic status of Enlightenment tradition and the ideal of enlightenment is not only a local or national specificity, nor is it limited exclusively to contemporary philosophical, ideo-political and cultural disputes. On the contrary, from the very beginning of Enlightenment, we can notice a strong criticism and a strong anti-enlightenment tradition, which is one of the main issues related to the two-century development of the European opinion and thus it is one of the key topics of research of the history of philosophical and political ideas.
Therefore, the reconstruction and reinterpretation of disputes around Enlightenment are permanent challenges for the historians of ideas. However, the research about the destiny of the Enlightenment projects and disputes about it does not have only a historiographical importance, because it is a necessary condition for the understanding of current debates on the ‘end of modernism’ and ‘postmodern condition’. For this reason, the historiographical thematization of Enlightenment tradition – its complex internal dynamics and historical forms of its (self)criticism is a path towards reception and evaluation of the scope of contemporary attempts of its critical ‘deconstruction’ in different fields of theoretical and practical discourse.
The research is conducted in three mutually related areas. The first one is the most general one and covers thematization of Enlightenment in the European historical and contemporary context. Within that framework, there is a research of classic Enlightenment and types of its rejection within specific European idea traditions, then the relation between Enlightenment and modernism, as well as different contemporary (‘postmodern’) strategies of criticism of Enlightenment. Taking into account the influence of German culture to the reception of ideas and ideals of Enlightenment in South-East Europe and Serbia, there is a specific attention paid to the research of characteristics of German Enlightenment and ideo-political types of its rejection. The second and narrower framework of research is directed at problematization of Enlightenment interpreted with a socio-political key of ‘modernization’ and ‘Europeanization’ of Eastern and Eouth-eastern societies ‘in the periphery’. The research of the process of secularization and the resistance it comes across, the creation and establishment of nations, the roles of Enlightenment elites and their relation towards tradition, as well as forming ‘special paths of development’ in these societies – represent theoretical and historical background of dealing with the third topic focused on the ‘Serbian case’. Therefore, the third and the narrowest area involves the research focused on the interpretation of reception and the significance of Enlightenment in historical, cultural and political development of Serbia, as well as on the analysis of the status of the values of Enlightenment in contemporary Serbian society. Although the proposed project covers the research with a big time span (XVIII – XX) it is primarily directed at problematizing the relation between ‘history’ and ‘contemporariness’, thus its center of exploration and realization shifts from the historically-philosophical sphere to understanding and interpreting vivid and open problems of today.
The indicated thematic framework (analysis and interpretation of dynamics of development of Enlightenment ideas and their rejection in European, Balkan and national contexts from mid-18th century till today) is a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic of research. The project topic is approached from a wider perspective covering philosophical, historical, sociological, anthropological and political research of Enlightenment in European history and contemporariness, as well as the research of the reception of European (anti)enlightenment tradition in the Balkans societies from the perspective of these disciplines. Therefore, the results of project realization can be divided into three different groups. The first one includes thematization of classic Enlightenment and ways of its rejection within specific European traditions of ideas, the relation between enlightenment and modernism, as well as different contemporary (‘postmodern’) strategies of criticism of enlightenment. The second group includes the results of narrower – sociological, political, historical and anthropological research of reception of Enlightenment in Eastern and South-eastern ‘peripheral’ societies in Europe. The third group of results refers to the narrowest research subject – Enlightenment in Serbia – both in national history and in contemporary. The realization of research involved: dr Dušan Bošković, mr Predrag Krstić, dr Aleksandar Molnar, dr Slobodan Naumović, mr Aleksandar Nikitović, dr Mile Savić and dr Ivana Spasić. In addition to the researchers financially supported by the Ministry of Science, the project also involved associates Ivan Milenković and Zoran Obrenović. Between 2006 and 2008 dr Milan Subotić was the project manager, and since 1 January 2008 the position belonged to dr Gordana Đerić. The work produced by this project should contribute to a better understanding of European idea and political tradition, observation of reception and tradition in regional and national contexts, and finally to re-examining national cultural and political past which could ease a rational relation towards problems and challenges of modern days.