The “Light” and the process of the cognition

• This paper analyses the internal structure of the terminology of the Enlightenment, actually the process of forming the term “enlightenment” itself within the Indo-European languages and beyond this language family. We use the methodological concept found in the cognitive linguistics on the research of metaphorical extension of lexically meaning of the stem, light, and other morphemes forming the word. Therefore, we study meanings of different parts of the word and how they are combined together, e.g. English En-light-en-ment; German Auf-klär-ung; French Lumières; Italian Illuminismo; Hungarian Fel-világos-odás; Russian Про-свет-и-тель-ство; Czeck O-svíc-ení; Serbian Pro-svećen-ost, etc. We argue that there are linguistically and semantically significant differences once these terms in the Indo-European languages and other languages in the world are compared, e.g. Japanese satori which does not involve the concept of light and yet still refers to the same concept. Comparing similarities and differences of the terms in different families of language, on one hand, and considering the main question of the enlightenment, i.e. Is the knowledge based on observation and reason, on the other, this paper opens questions about the “Light” as the central metaphor of the movement in the 18th century philosophy in Europe. Exploring the terminology this paper actually explores main questions of the Enlightenment - the question of understanding, the process of the cognition in the sense of the perception (seeing is understanding, involving light) and the process of the immanent understanding which is closer to the religious experiences.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature (hsv//eng)

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)