The first contact of Korais with the West was a compromise: his pursuit of education and the decision to go to the Netherlands as a representative of his father's trading house. In 1772, he embarked on the long journey from Smyrna to Amsterdam, in the liberal environment of which Korais absorbed the ideas nurtured by the religious education of the city, appreciating not only evangelical Christianity but also the principles of religious tolerance. It was the starting point of his lifelong journey through the open seas of Enlightenment.

After studying medicine in Montpellier and Paris, he discovers a new way of thinking. The intellectual space of the heirs of the Enlightenment would serve as the theoretical basis for his reflections that unite knowledge with the science of humanity. His classical studies would become the cornerstone for a balanced appreciation of the relationships between the natural and the moral. Regarding the issues raised by the theory of progress, Korais participates in the debate that characterizes the philosophy of the French Enlightenment, encounters the thought of Condorcet, and does not stray from Rousseau's anthropological pessimism. For Korais, civilization embodies an ideal towards which all peoples should strive through education.

Korais's commitment to democratic liberalism is evident in his disdain for the “most foolish conduct” of many politicians in Greece, whom he holds responsible for the sufferings of the Greek people. Sufferings he attributes to the lack of education of those involved in public life. Between political freedom and personal autonomy and the ambitions of nationalism, Korais seems to give moral precedence to freedom and individual rights.

At all these levels of analysis, research and reflection on Korais's ideas could offer new perspectives to view the intellectual, political, and moral concerns of the Enlightenment and their various manifestations within historical experience. In this sense, the legacy of his ideas, if incorporated into the framework of the Enlightenment, could prove instructive for a more inclusive and pluralistic understanding of this movement as a unified intercultural stage in the history of the European spirit.