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Enlightenment And The Age Of Enlightenment By Immanuel Kant

800 Words4 Pages

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher, who was also one of the central figures of The Age of Enlightenment and the founders of modern philosophy. In the 1780s, when the Enlightenment was being openly discussed in the public sphere, especially in Kant's Prussia, Kant responded to Berlin Monthly with an essay elaborating on what constituted the Enlightenment. According to Foucault, periodicals in the eighteenth century chose to question the public on problems that did not have solutions yet1. "What is Enlightenment?" is a major work because it presents the questions and analysis of its age; namely, the structural changes that were happening to the European society, its response to increasing information being publicized (mainly …show more content…

He defines this as a willingness to accept other authorities where our reasoning ability is called for. However, this "nonage" may be less visible in our age, simply because of the immense presence of the public sphere and promotion of education which supposedly enables people to use their reasoning as in "the public use". The obstacle to the Enlightenment in our time is rather different; the rising social problem of our age, in developed societies at least, is conformism. One can say that conformism is in direct proportion to this self-imposed nonage. Therefore, those who haven't sparked in themselves a desire for novelty and revolution will be essentially lost in this massive presence of public information or disinformation and constant bombarding of texts, visuals and pressures which direct the person to accept the status quo, (s)he conforms to it. What Kant calls the public use of reason is taken over by a world of magazines which tell one how to live, books which guide one how to behave for success and the unnerving fact that every person is moulded into one, single mind. This is why, Kant's notion of Enlightenment is very important to grasp for the people of our …show more content…

Kant's essay is a perfect example of visualizing what would happen in Europe's future (e.g the French Revolution), but his words are important: "a revolution may never bring true reforms of modes of thought". As Kant said, the same happened after the revolution, French regressed into a monarchy and thence the revolution was not permanent and it is doubtful that its mode of thought had been permanent. Reading the article is also beneficial because it shows the way for the bright minds to find solutions to the problems we face now. The only way out, ausgang, is to analyze what exactly it is, and what is to be done about it. The question should be whether we can provide everybody with an atmosphere that they feel like there are no interferences to their reasoning and voicing of their

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