Education

Graikoi: Korais, as many of his contemporaries, preferred to use the word Graikoi instead of Greeks.

The Enlightenment's principal message was to free the spirit from medieval thinking and use contemporary technology and philosophy to built proper individuals and liberate man from prejudice. Greek scholars considered education an important precondition for revolution. The 'claim for education' became Korais' message; he engaged in publishing ancient and contemporary works to be read by modern Greeks and familiarized himself with current European ideas. For Korais, language was the fundamental tool with which to fulfil his vision; and it was an issue that divided Greek scholars. Some believed that popular language would make education accessible to a large number of people, while others supported the view that the ancient language would bring Greeks closer to their ancestors and modern thinking. Korais proposed a middle way: dimotiki, a purified language in which some foreign words would be replaced by Greek with an new structure in syntax and grammar.

Adamantios Korais

The liberal ideas of the Enlightenment had nurtured Korais who critised the nature and the role of the Church. Although, in his eyes, the Orthodox Church was not as arbitrary as the Catholic, he believed that the high rank of the monastic orders should be limited. He expressed his disapproval of the Church by writing 'Adelfiki Didaskalia', a response to Patriki Didaskalia written by the Patriach of Jerusalem, Anthimos. To avoid a direct confrontation with the Church and the religious feeling of the Greek population, he questioned the writer's identity and, without censorship, he passed strong judgement defending liberalism and the Enlightenment. He concluded that those who believed that the Ottoman Empire was at God's mercy were opponents of religion and Greeks but supporters, rather, of the Ottoman people.