With William Christie conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, though, the music couldn't be better presented; Christie's ability to give conjure up ceremonial grandeur, tender intimacy and rhythmic variety may be sleight of hand from the greatest Rameau interpreter of our time, but it's totally compelling.
The unapologetic and matter-of-fact acknowledgment of its characters' sex lives gives the series an aura of enlightenment (though it would be merely seamy if its ultrahorny men were heterosexual).
Attacks on religion, of course, have been a staple of Western secular society since the Enlightenment, though often carried out with far less finesse (and far less emphasis on biology) than Mr. Dennett does; he refers to "the widespread presumption by social scientists that religion is some kind of lunacy".
The spare décor is in keeping with the pursuit of enlightenment through asceticism: the colors are neutral, the volume is hushed, and the joinery of the wooden tables is flush, as though nails would be a distraction.
It declined dramatically in the 18th century, however, a victim of the skepticism and rationalism of the Enlightenment, though some Rosicrucian ideas survived in speculative Freemasonry.
Stu, by contrast, is the everyman who journeys into the dark night — now, the jammed streets and clubs of Bangkok — on his way to enlightenment, though more likely another sequel.
In the age of Enlightenment, superstition was waning, though Joseph Addison confessed himself divided on the subject: "I believe, in general, that there is such a thing as witchcraft, but can give no credit to any particular instance of it".
But Mike Davis, the U.S.G.A. official who helps set up the course, has ushered in an age of enlightenment — that is, something close to fairness, though not exactly benevolence.
Thus, we may regard 'democratisation' in this sense as enabler of 'open impartiality' which, in the special case of science and education, would fulfil Habermas's prerequisite 'politicisation' to progress toward a state of 'self-enlightenment' (though Habermas's view of 'democratisation' in [ 81] was of more institutionalised nature).
Mr. Rattle conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with tremendous zest and enthusiasm, though the horns seemed to be troubled by an unusually hot evening.
Opera's ultimate fairytale-cum-adventure story, it was written as a piece of popular theatre in a form closer to pantomime than any other genre, though the deployment of Enlightenment and masonic imagery in the text adds layers of complexity to the narrative.
