The author of this book speaks out again in regard to the Enlightenment. His inspiration comes not only from new observations occasioned by own studies, but also from the recently read material as well as opinions and appraisals of the era articulated lately at academic conferences. Although they have not led the author to perform a fundamental revision of his views in regard to the nature of Enlightenment and its crucial contributions to the Western culture, they did afford a better understanding of its complexity. They also made him more aware that his interpretation and presentation of that era depends considerably on what its prominent representatives had to say, as well as on the worldview-based assumptions and methods of appraisal adopted by its later observers and interpreters.

Zbigniew Drozdowicz is a philosopher and researcher of religion. He graduated in history from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Since 1973, he has worked as a scientific and didactic employee at that university. In 1994, he obtained the title of a professor in humanistic sciences. He specialises in contemporary French philosophy and in philosophy of religion.