Pensées is a scientific, philosophical and literary journal for the ‘Online Age’. It is inspired by the multitude of literary, scientific and philosophical publications (journals, pamphlets, essays, etc.) that were a main part of the European intellectual life during the 17th and 18th centuries. This era witnessed an unprecedented flourishing of the arts and sciences in Europe when some of the most talented, intelligent and inspiring human minds lived, worked, travelled, taught and wrote. Their discoveries, inventions, thoughts and insights changed the way humans think of themselves, the world and their place within it and helped usher in the ‘Modern Era’.
This period of remarkable intellectual activity is now generally known as the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ or the ‘Age of Reason’.
It is the belief of the creators of this work that the world is once again experiencing a new ‘Age of Reason’. The advent of the personal computer and in more recent years, the Internet, has opened up new avenues of thought, expression and communication between humans on a previously unimaginable scale.
The whole globe is now an international forum where new ideas, thoughts, expressions and ways of thinking and living can be transmitted in an instant to the four corners of the planet. The spreading of knowledge and information has never been faster and more expansive. The ‘Knowledge of Man’ is only a few clicks away and the dream of the ‘World Library’, where the entire human knowledge is stored and can be accessed by all, is now quickly becoming a reality.
This variety of resources, tools and media of expression are for the first time in human history open and available to all people regardless of class, education, race or ethnicity. In the long run, the openness and accessibility of the new media will help launch a new Renaissance.
The pamphleteers, essayists, writers, thinkers, scientists, artists and philosophers of the future are currently acquiring and practicing their skills in the blogs, wikis, forums and social networking sites of the Global Village. Amidst the endless gigabytes of silly messages, pointless status updates and trivial blogging, we are bound to find the radical ideas of the next Karl Marx, the wit and humor of the next Mark Twain or the breadth of knowledge of the next Goethe. Maybe even the superb essays on everything under the sun from the new Michel de Montaigne. The possibilities in a world of 7 billion interconnected human brains are endless.
As an active part of the new ‘Age of Reason’, we hope that this site will become a fertile ground for new ideas and radical ways of thinking…
