Abstract

This work is an exploration of the concept of Enlightenment. First, the historiographical construction of the Enlightenment is examined to distinguish topics that characterized the ruptures and continuities in the sucessive interpretations. Subsequently, the issue is discussed in the context of the debate between Modernity and Postmodernity. Finally, question about the Enlightenment is discussed in relation to the possibilities of the philosophy of history and language. It concludes the need to recover the philosophy of history as legacy of the Enlightenment, and considers how such a recovery could be made.