PARTISAN REVIEW
the enlightened state of primal innocence, but in a forward motion,
an advance into a third state, into a second innocence. We believers
know how true that is.
But in the same passage man is told that all enlightenment will
not bring him what he expects from it, happiness. In the sweat of his
brow he shall and must earn his bread, and women shall bring forth
children
in
sorrow. Work and generation are a curse-but he who
accepts the curse is blessed. In work and in generation, birth and
death-that is,
in
human history- the curse and the blessing have
unfolded through hundreds of thousands of years: work
is
sweat and
joy, generation
is
pain and pleasure, death
is
bitter and redeeming–
and enlightenment has a share in this twofold nature of man.
It
is
curse and blessing. It
is
necessary. It
is
our portion.
II
Now let us drop history, and especially theology, and con–
sider-with as little prejudice as possible- what enlightenment is.
One enlightens another or oneself concerning something which
was not clear. The men of the Enlightenment spoke of the light of
the Enlightenment: one brings something to light which was pre–
viously in darkness.
If
this really takes place, if it is not mere pre–
tense,
if
it is not, for example, a matter of a tricky lighting effect
which produces a false picture of the reality- then enlightenment
is
first of all a good thing. Its goal is that some reality shall "no
longer be concealed"- and that, of course,
is
the Greek etymology
of
aletheia,
truth. Enlightenment aims at truth. To seek truth, of
course, does not mean to find it without further ado; one who aims at
truth perhaps finds error; one who intends to aim at truth, or
is
convinced that he is aiming at it, is perhaps only aiming at "clarity"
-that is, simplicity, comprehensibility-at something which suits
him or even pleases him. So that by the very process he perhaps
discovers not truth but only a plausible hieroglyph. Here lies one
of the temptations of enlightenment: the tendency to arrive at
"clarity" instead of .at truth. It may be that too fleeting a ray of
light, or an eye too stubbornly turned
in
a given direction, will re–
veal a picture more positive and definite than the previously familiar
half-darkness or even darkness itself; but this picture can at the
