Digital publication of Prof. Antoine Lilti's opening lecture 

Antoine Lilti

Actuality of the Enlightenment : a plural history

The Enlightenment refers not only to an intellectual movement rooted in the ^18th century of Europe, or to a historical period that is no longer with us. They also refer to a philosophical and political heritage that is still relevant today. We don't just study them, we claim them or criticize them. How can we think about the contemporary relevance of the Enlightenment ?

Drawing on recent advances in historiography, Antoine Lilti proposes to conceive of the Enlightenment as a space for critical debate on modernity and an ideal of emancipation through knowledge. He outlines a program of comparative research on the " plural Enlightenment " and its legacy in different cultural spaces.

Lilti A., Actualité des Lumières : une histoire plurielle, Paris, Collège de France, coll. " Leçons inaugurales ", ^no 316, 2023.

A historian of cultural practices, Antoine Lilti has studied changes in public space and sociability, as well as the emergence, in the ^18th century, of a new form of personal recognition : celebrity. Her work focuses on the social and cultural history of the Enlightenment in ^{eighteenth-century} Europe and its contemporary legacy. After teaching at the EHESS, he was appointed Professor at the Collège de France in 2022, holding the History of the Enlightenment, ^18th to 21st Century chair.