ABSTRACT
Our modern way of life is a product of two revolutions, the Enlightenment and the Emancipation. The Enlightenment challenged medieval conceptions of the good rooted in scripture, replacing them with a life based on science and technology. The Emancipation is the political programme of the Enlightenment. It enabled people to abandon the corporate identities of medieval life for citizenship in nations conceived to protect individual rights and economic interests. As a result of these revolutions, moral theory replaced examination of the good with justification of the right and political theory shifted from asking about who should rule to preserving one's right to choose a conception of the good life. 2
