The Atlantic Enlightenment

Although the phrase “Atlantic Enlightenment” is not yet widely used, I will argue that it should be. The phrase—and more importantly, the category that it refers to—adds something useful to the study of the Enlightenment and the Atlantic world. Although I believe that number of individuals involved were relatively modest, there are signs that there was a distinctly Atlantic Enlightenment composed of individuals whose intellectual development and contributions were deeply grounded in the mobility and fluidity, the interconnection and reciprocity, the circulation and contestation that characterized the early modern Atlantic world. I will argue that there are five topics or themes in the development of Enlightenment ideas that are particularly well suited to inquiries within an Atlantic framework—subjects that will probably reveal a greater Atlantic distinctiveness when investigated more closely: the development of liberal political economic theory; the development of radical political ideas (arguments for greater liberties, justifications for independence, revolution, democratic institutions, radical egalitarianism, etc.); the Enlightenment transformation of the concept of nature as well as the methods of studying nature; the new discourses of social and political inclusion and exclusion (primarily ideas about rights and race); and the emergence of biopolitical ideas and practices.