THE ENLIGHTENED ALIENATION OF A PHILOSOPHER: DOSITEJ’S BIRTH IN THE NEW WORLD

Abstract

In the first part of the article, the author advocates the thesis that the Enlightenment does not abandon Christian anthropology, but rather corrects it by modifying a certain version of salvation. The former eternal life in the afterlife world has been replaced by a complete life in this world. The keyword of the 18th century, the idea of perfection, played a leading role. The leading idea of the article is that the process of enlightenment should be considered as fundamentally infinite, and it cannot be ended because there is no unequivocal answer about its purpose and how it should be completed. It is inexhaustible and incomplete due to its internal multi-layeredness within which different views can always be established, and hence polarization. That is why mutually opposing currents of enlightenment can be discerned. The paradox of the Enlightenment consists in the fact that the opposition is not somewhere on the other side of the Enlightenment movement. In the second part of the work, the author presents the idea that Dositej’s entire intellectual and human effort could be reduced to building a culture and humanity in which there will be no place for bullying, abuse, and ranting. A culture beyond violence, could be his leading slogan.