Jacques Bouchard

The Greek Enlightenment

Studies of the Enlightenment in Greece follow on from the work of K. Dimaras (1904-1992), the most important of which were reissued in Greek Enlightenment (Ermis, 1977, 3rd ed. 1983, 524pp). Dimaras established the time span of the phenomenon (1772-1821) and, noted its chief milestones (e.g Voltaire on Greece) and its leading figures (such as Katartzis and Korais). His work is still a source of inspiration for scholars.
Alkis Angelou (1917-2001) worked closely with Dimaras when the latter was working on his Literature ([1st ed.] 1948). Angelou wrote about people such as Anthrakitis, Kodrikas and Beniamin Lesviou, and researched subjects such as Freemasonry in Greece. His studies, which venture into many related fields – such as the Erotokritos – were published in two volumes: Of the Enlightenment: Aspects of the Greek Enlightenment (vol. I, 361pp. Ermis, 1988, & vol II, 510pp, National Bank of Greece’s Cultural Foundation MIET, 1999).
Angelou was a member of the committee that organised the Panhellenic Congress on the Enlightenment in Kozani, 8-11 November, 1996. The proceedings were published under the title Greek Enlightenment (an attempt at a new research collection), (Kozani Institute of Books and Reading, 1999).
The 18 papers in this volume respond to the aims of the congress, which included disposing of weak interpretations of the Greek Enlightenment. Later scholars following in the footsteps of Dimaras and Angelos have recently published documented studies, often bearing identical titles, but with subtitles that serve as a guide to the writer’s intentions and methodology.
Paschalis M. Kitromilides wrote Greek Enlightenment - Political and Social Ideas, translated by Stella Nikoloudi (MIET, 1996). This is the Greek version of the dissertation he defended in English at Harvard in 1978. In contrast to the work of other scholars, this is a complex endeavour where the author attempts to reconstruct the entire phenomenon, examining it historically and theoretically, and drawing elements of ecclesiastical and scientific history into a socio-political survey. He studies the main people and events. As befits a thesis, the book has an extensive bibliography and notes on every chapter.
Panayiotis Kondylis explores the same subject from different viewpoint in his book Greek Enlightenment - The Philosophical Ideas (Themelio, 2000, 262 pp). The writer, who holds a PhD from Heidelberg, highlights the way in which Greek thought engaged with modern philosophy, and how Aristotelianism and Platonism were set aside. A scholar of the European Enlightenment, Kondylis casts an experienced eye on the philosophers (Descartes, Locke, Newton, Kant and others) who influenced the Greeks of the Enlightenment, and how the latter developed their own theory from a foreign spark. A useful glossary supplements his synopsis of the subject.
Panayiotis Noutsos, Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at Ioannina University, has published a book under the same title with an indicative subtitle: Greek Enlightenment - The Limits of Risk (Ellinika Grammata, 2005, 539pp). To this collection of 21 articles he has published in the past, Noutsos has added a long introduction, which is very personal and in parts autobiographical, and which highlights the link between the researcher and his GAP subject. Some of his studies dissect issues that have been dealt with by earlier writers, but from his own viewpoint. Noutsos refers to first editions of works wherever possible, though in some cases the later literature would be helpful, especially where critical editions exist. He concludes with samples of some entries for the dictionary of the Enlightenment that he plans to compile.
Anna Tambaki, who was a pupil of Dimaras at the Sorbonne, is the author of On the Greek Enlightenment, Currents of Ideas and Channels of Communication with Western Thought (Ergo, 2004, 282pp). As the subtitle indicates, Tambaki uses the methods of comparative literature to explore how the Enlightenment was disseminated among Greeks. She takes a fresh look at the role played by translation in transmitting the ideas of the Enlightenment. Tambaki is also a rare example of a scholar who suggests a new chronology for the Greek Enlightenment: she recognizes the Early Enlightenment (Fruhaufklarung) as a separate period in south-eastern Europe (1700-1750); she describes the period 1750-1770 as the “crucial period” for the shaping of the Greek Enlightenment.
Many other researchers have explored related topics. Interested readers can consult the basic textbook, edited by D.F Apostolopoulos and E. N. Frangiskos: Greek Enlightenment - Bibliography 1945-1995 (Modern Greek Studies Centre of the National Research Foundation and the Philosophy Department of Ioannina University, Athens, 1998, 315pp).