Cultural Patterns of the Enlightenment

Prof. Dr. Daniel Fulda (German Studies)

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Barth (Theology),
Prof. Harald Bluhm (Political science),
Prof. Dr. Dr. Ralf Koerrenz (Education, Jena),
Prof. Dr. Stefan Matuschek (German Studies, Jena),
Prof. Dr. Dorothee Röseberg (Romance cultural studies),
Prof. Dr. Heinz Thoma (Romance Languages and Literature)

The term 'cultural patterns' refers to concepts which serve to direct actions and thereby crystallize into natural cultural habits. It raises questions about the patterns of interpretation through which the world is categorized, structured and interpreted and also about the resulting practices. Cultural patterns serve to connect semantic and symbolic systems with certain social needs as well as the material conditions of communication. The heuristics associated with this concept are appropriately suited to bring together research approaches from the history of ideas, media, sociology and textual studies. In Europe, the Enlightenment was the great era that formed cultural patterns; the loss of traditional orders demanded the creation of new patterns which were able to establish themselves with varying degrees of success. Cultural patterns are, according to the hypothesis, to be understood as both conceptual and practical answers to the open situation which arose when the traditional orders of action, knowledge and belief lost their air of naturalness. Cultural patterns are long-term developments with long-term effects; they are both the product and expression of successful communication, social acceptance, and cultural prestige. As long as they are resorted to, they link formation phases, such as the Age of Enlightenment, with later epochs. Some of these cultural patterns reach into our present age; examining them thus also means exposing the cultural foundation of our present.

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