What Is Enlightment For Kant
What Is Enlightment For Kant
What Is Enlightment For Kant
In the essay An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? published in 1784, Kant
provides his own personal definition of Enlightenment as mans emergence from his
self-incurred immaturity. The German philosopher described the movement referring
to the abandon of immaturity, intended as the inability to use ones own understanding
without the guidance of others, and its self-incurring nature, as it is the results of laziness
and cowardice instead of a proper lack of understanding. Indeed it is precisely the
devolution of human understanding, spiritual belief and power of judgement to others
guidance, namely guardians, that Kant is strongly criticizing and Enlightenment is
attempting to eradicate. In particular in this essay the author, spent major effort in
dispelling ruling elites fears concerning Enlightenment and its possible consequences in
the destabilization of the established social status quo of the time. Kant, using the same
philosophical procedure with which he steered a middle course between empiricism
and rationalism, generated a middle way between obedience and wild revolution, arguing
that man will work of their own accordtheir way out of barbarism so long as artificial
measures are not deliberately adopted to keep them in it but however they will proceed
gradually along this path of freeing their intellectual capacities. Thus, as long it entails
progress in education, in reason, and as long it unfold incrementally (and as long it leaves
enough room for faith, I would add), Kant, welcoming the advent of Enlightenment, is
absolutely embracing Modernity.
Whether Marxs thought is consistent with this definition of Modernity, and whether
himself can be considered an Enlightenment figure, is however not immediate.
Firstly Marx departs from Kant both for his definition of Modernity (despite they share
the ultimate objective of Modernity, namely human emancipation), and his approach
towards it. On one side, Marx, as Rousseau did with the state of nature, employs the
concept of economic injustice as a pulpit from which to hurl his sharp criticism of the
current production system, which is nothing but the product of the Modernity that Kant