Abstract

The aim of this article is to think about the conceptual specificities of the French Enlightenment. It is divided into three parts: in the first, the opposition between Enlightenment (in the singular) and Enlightenment (in the plural) will be analysed, which will allow us to consider issues related to knowledge; in the second, the distinction between Enlightenment and Aufklärung will be addressed and will refer to the relationship between knowledge and morality; in the third and final part, the question of what it is to be “enlightened” will be discussed. The scope of this text is therefore to work on the themes of religion, morality and politics, since it is these that are linked to the originality of the French Enlightenment, understood as a decisive philosophical contribution to the development of knowledge.