Reinhold, Franc-Maçon et philosophe de l’Aufklärung

Abstract

Reinhold was at one and the same time engaged in Masonic activities and pursuing a philosophical career. The aim of this article is to examine the junction of these two aspects of his public life during the period of 1783–1788. Reinhold’s Masonic engagements in these Viennese years coalesce with the virulent agenda of a scientific Aufklärung at the time being promoted by the Lodge True Concord under the leadership of Born. The Lodge’s watchword was the battle against all forms of obscurantism and occultism, and the celebration of the values of concord, solidarity and universality. Two major crises were to disturb this Reinhold’s Masonic world: one was the closure of the Lodge True Concord and the suppression by the Bavarian government of the Order of the Illuminati; the other, which followed upon the first, was a crisis of the very concept of Aufklärung that led to a fracturing of the Masonic world order and the accompanying opening of a new philosophical front.