ABSTRACT
Knowledge, in the Western philosophical tradition, has been associated with reason, clarity and illumination. It is concerned with the process of making the truth visible, the revelation of the subject of inquiry to the interrogating eye. In modern European history, the Enlightenment project aimed specifically to relate knowledge more closely to scientific modes of enquiry. Truth and knowledge were defined primarily in rational terms, reinforcing the rejection of that which cannot be comprehended and illuminated by reason:
The development of rational forms of social organisation and rational modes of thought promised liberation from the irrationalities of myth, religion, superstition, release from the arbitrary use of power as well as from the dark side of our own human natures. Only through such a project could the universal, the eternal and the immutable qualities of all humanity be revealed.3
