Page 315 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E H I S T O R I C A L O R I G I N S O F T H E M O D E R N W O R L D
tation with the famous cogito ergo sum, grounding existence
itself in human thought. From Descartes emerged the Euro-
pean Enlightenment, which placed human reason in the posi-
tion of ultimate judge. This development shaped the entire
course of modern culture, cultivating both the sciences and
the arts around the centrality of the thinking subject.
Even the diversity of Western philosophical systems does
not obscure this fundamental unity: Western culture moves
along the axis of the exaltation of the thinking individual, an
axis whose roots lie in Augustine’s turn inward.
The Enlightenment, building consistently upon these foun-
dations, became the defining framework of modern Western
culture. Its full complexity cannot be exhausted here, but its
essential characteristics—those that shape the modern
world—must now be examined.
315