Thanks, makes sense. This makes me want to pull out the common characteristics of these different groups and use those as definitional (and perhaps realise we should include other groups we’re not even paying attention to!), rather than treat it as a purely sociological clustering. Does that seem good?
Like maybe there’s a theme about trying to take the world and our position in it seriously?
Makes sense—I guess they’re all taking an enlightenment-style worldview and pursuing intellectual progress on questions that matter over longer timescales...
Maybe the obvious suggestion then is “new enlightenment”? I googled, and the term has some use already (e.g. in a talk by Pinker), but it feels pretty compatible with what you’re gesturing at. I guess it would suggest a slightly broader conception (more likely to include people or groups not connected to the communities you named), but maybe that’s good?
I find “new enlightenment” very fitting. But wonder whether it might at times be perceived as a not very humble name (must not be a problem, but I wonder whether some, me included, might at times end up feeling uncomfortable calling ourselves part of it).
I agree that this is potentially an issue. I think it’s (partially) mitigated the more it’s used to refer to ideas rather than people, and the more it’s seen to be a big (and high prestige) thing.
Thanks, makes sense. This makes me want to pull out the common characteristics of these different groups and use those as definitional (and perhaps realise we should include other groups we’re not even paying attention to!), rather than treat it as a purely sociological clustering. Does that seem good?
Like maybe there’s a theme about trying to take the world and our position in it seriously?
Makes sense—I guess they’re all taking an enlightenment-style worldview and pursuing intellectual progress on questions that matter over longer timescales...
Maybe the obvious suggestion then is “new enlightenment”? I googled, and the term has some use already (e.g. in a talk by Pinker), but it feels pretty compatible with what you’re gesturing at. I guess it would suggest a slightly broader conception (more likely to include people or groups not connected to the communities you named), but maybe that’s good?
I find “new enlightenment” very fitting. But wonder whether it might at times be perceived as a not very humble name (must not be a problem, but I wonder whether some, me included, might at times end up feeling uncomfortable calling ourselves part of it).
I agree that this is potentially an issue. I think it’s (partially) mitigated the more it’s used to refer to ideas rather than people, and the more it’s seen to be a big (and high prestige) thing.
As I mentioned above, cf “Brights”