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What is enlightenment, and how best might it be achieved in a civilised society? These are the key questions Kant addresses, and poses answers to, in his essay, which can be read in full here. Below, we summarise the main points of his argument and offer an analysis of Kant’s position.
Kant begins his essay by defining enlightenment as humanity’s emergence from immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to think without external help. Such immaturity is self-imposed, as its cause lies not in a lack of capacity, but in fear.
The philosopher Immanuel Kant published “What Is Enlightenment?” (full title, “An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?”) in 1784. This guide uses the translation by Ted Humphrey from the volume Perpetual Peace and Other Essays, published by Hackett in 1983.
- Causes
- Pre-Enlightenmentdiscoveries
- The Enlightenmentin England
- The Enlightenmentin France
- Romanticism
- Skepticism
- The End of TheEnlightenment
On the surface, the most apparent cause of the Enlightenmentwas the Thirty Years’ War. This horribly destructivewar, which lasted from 1618 to 1648,compelled German writers to pen harsh criticisms regarding the ideasof nationalism and warfare. These authors, such as HugoGrotius and John Comenius, were some of thefirst Enlightenment minds to go agai...
The Enlightenment developed through a snowball effect:small advances triggered larger ones, and before Europe and theworld knew it, almost two centuries of philosophizing and innovationhad ensued. These studies generally began in the fields of earthscience and astronomy, as notables such as Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei tookthe old, beloved “...
The first major Enlightenment figure in Englandwas Thomas Hobbes, who caused great controversywith the release of his provocative treatise Leviathan (1651).Taking a sociological perspective, Hobbes felt that by nature, peoplewere self-serving and preoccupied with the gathering of a limitednumber of resources. To keep balance, Hobbes continued, it w...
Many of the major French Enlightenment thinkers, or philosophes, wereborn in the years after the Glorious Revolution, so France’s Enlightenmentcame a bit later, in the mid-1700s.The philosophes, though varying in style and area of particularconcern, generally emphasized the power of reason and sought todiscover the natural laws governing human soci...
In reaction to the rather empirical philosophiesof Voltaire and others, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote TheSocial Contract (1762),a work championing a form of government based on small, direct democracy thatdirectly reflects the will of the population. Later, at the endof his career, he would write Confessions, a deeplypersonal reflection on his life. ...
Another undercurrent that threatened the prevailing principlesof the Enlightenment was skepticism. Skeptics questionedwhether human society could really be perfected through the useof reason and denied the ability of rational thought to reveal universaltruths. Their philosophies revolved around the idea that the perceived worldis relative to the be...
Ultimately, the Enlightenment fell victim to competingideas from several sources. Romanticism was more appealing to less-educated commonfolk and pulled them away from the empirical, scientific ideas ofearlier Enlightenment philosophers. Similarly, the theories of skepticismcame into direct conflict with the reason-based assertions of theEnlightenme...
"Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" (German: Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?), often referred to simply as "What Is Enlightenment?", is a 1784 essay by the philosopher Immanuel Kant.
Jun 21, 2011 · Kant: What Is Enlightenment? According to the influential 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, enlightenment was man’s release from “self-incurred tutelage.” Enlightenment was the process by which the public could rid themselves of intellectual bondage after centuries of slumbering.
Aug 20, 2010 · Immanuel Kant defines “enlightenment” in his famous contribution to debate on the question in an essay entitled “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?” (1784), as humankind’s release from its self-incurred immaturity; “immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another.”
