Immanuel Kant's "What Is Enlightenment?"

Transcription

1 Immanuel Kant's "What Is Enlightenment?" "Enlightenment is man's emergence frm his self-impsed immaturity." page 41, paragraph 35 "Immaturity is the inability t use ne's understanding withut guidance frm anther." page 41 "This immaturity is self-impsed when its cause lies nt in lack f understanding, but in lack f reslve and curage t use it withut guidance frm anther." - page 41 The mtt f enlightenment: "Have curage t use yur wn understanding!" - page 41 Laziness and cwardice are why s many peple fail t reach maturity, gladly living ut their lives as immature - page 41 Furthermre, it is why it is easy fr thers t becme "guardians" f these ther lazy peple - page 41 "If I have a bk t serve as my understanding, a pastr t serve as my cnscience, a physician t determine my diet fr me, and s n, I need nt exert myself at all." - page 41 Kant asserts that men becme dependent n these guardians and it appears that the guardians prefer it as such (page 41) The guardians warn their dependents f the dangers f life withut them, thus, elevating the very psitins f the guardians as necessary This fear makes it "difficult fr any individual man t wrk himself ut f the immaturity that has all but becme his nature." - page 41 If we have freedm, "enlightenment is almst inevitable", it is all that is necessary fr enlightenment- page 42 Every s ften, an dd ball will think fr themselves "a public can nly attain enlightenment slwly" "a revlutin can verthrw autcratic desptism and prfiteering r pwer-grabbing ppressin, but it can never truly refrm a manner f thinking " - page 42 "The public use f ne's reasn must always be free, and it alne can bring abut enlightenment amng mankind" - page 42 Main pint: "man's emergence frm self-impsed immaturity, first because ur rulers have n interest in assuming the rle f their subjects' guardians with respect t the arts and sciences, and secndly because that frm f immaturity is bth the mst pernicius and disgraceful f all." The act f enlightenment, therefre, was the act f rejecting this easy frm f life and asserting the primacy f yur individual reasn t reject the cnventins f the scial guardians wh Kant asserted herded sciety like dcile, dumb livestck Kant argued that bstacles t individual enlightenment went beynd self-impsed bstacles. Freedm was the essential ingredient fr enlightenment. Sciety, hwever, impsed restrictins n freedm thrugh laws and religin that cnstrained free thught thrugh law, cnventin r threat.

2 Knwledge was als a requirement but access t it was ften very restricted and guarded in late eighteenth century Eurpe but attempts were being made t bring knwledge t the masses. An age f enlightenment was a time when bstacles t enlightenment were being remved r erded, Kant believed that late eighteenth century Eurpe was in such an age. As a sciety allwed mre freedm, it became mre enlightened. An enlightened age, therefre, was an age when bstacles had been remved and individuals and sciety were enlightened and free t pursue self-determinatin and self-ratinalizatin Fucault: "What Is Enlightenment?" "Enlightenment is thus nt merely the prcess by which individuals wuld see their wn persnal freedm f thught guaranteed." -page 37 As with any curse in plitical thery, the texts tell yu abut the perid in histry - cultural, plitical cntext, and philsphical debates that were happening at the time Prblems they try t slve, i.e. why d certain dilemmas arise as a prblem? Kant is dealing with what it is t be a human being, what prvides us with ur meaning - wuld have been nnsensical questins in the pre-mdern perid These questins have a histrical cntext, nt randm Immanuel Kant asks: hw d we determine the truth, the surety f human mrals, what's the basis f right mral actin? - wuldn't have made sense in pre-mdern perid Kant is respnding t what he saw as a threat, a crisis at the time - threat f skepticism in theries f knwledge There were theries flating arund at this time that brught int questin the very pssibility f knwledge There were als challenges t traditinal justificatins fr mral actin, religius belief, etc. These challenges begin t emerge in the centuries prir t Kant, by the time he's writing they gt the upper hand It was als histrical cnditins, seeing t call int questin all kinds f certainties Mre specifically, Kant is engaging with tw cmpeting, warring, philsphical appraches r schls that had actually frmed int identifiable schls by the 17th century The first side r apprach was what came t be knwn as the mdern ratinalist apprach

3 Ratinalist apprach f mrality, knwledge, etc. : innate (Plat - csms ratinal rder, bjective truths, values themselves have an bjective existence, because this universe is ratinal, human reasn at least theretically can access it) In 17th century mdern ratinalists based the certainty f these universals nt s much n ur cgnitin per se, but n sciences techniques such as mathematics Mathematics in particular seen as mdel fr accessing truth Ratinalists presuppse ratinal, lgical rder t the universe, pssibility that we can have certainty in knwledge Other apprach r schl came a bit later, respnded t ratinalists: empiricism (Lcke, Hume) Cntrary t what ratinalists believe, knwledge nt based n innate principals, can't use mathematical mdels, instead all knwledge is based in experience Anything we knw This is its mre extreme frms at least amng thse empiricists, this casted dubt n the certainty f knwledge itself in any field f inquiry These schls are an utcme f these brader develpments that created the need r pssibility fr the first time f asking these kinds f questins: is there an bjective basis fr mral actin? What is this bjective basis? Wuldn t' have been a questin befre, had theries f mral law, scial hierarchy in place prviding this certainty Questins culd be asked abut whether knwledge was pssible, was pened up by brader cultural trends, mvements, develpments Mst imprtantly, fr the first time we have dubt being cast, questins being asked abut what the purpse f human existence is, why are we imprtant? Related t this, why am I imprtant? What's my significance as a persn? Hw d I fit int the rder f things? Distinctly mdern questins Questins wuldn't have arisen, if they did, n threat, existential dilemma, angst r wrry abut hw yu fit int things and what the meaning f yur life was Prir t mdern perid, Eurpe medieval perid, authritarian rganic sciety, yur place was determined by yur place in the whle - place within the hierarchy Even the lwest servant in this system had his r her place - had sme kind f value even if it wasn't the nicest, it had a meaning within the greater whle Human beings in general derive their meaning and their significant in the greater rder f things Greater rder f things fr christen Eurpe (medieval Eurpe) was gd's creatin Mral truths were als part f this greater rder, were seen as part f larger, bjectively existing reality, again created and determined by gd

4 All aspects therefre f human existence and human sciety were explained and justified by this greater rder Plitical authrity part f this verall plan Authrity f church central t plan Meaning and value in whle f creatin, everything in creatin has its purpse and its reality, everything being determined by gd Image adpted ges back t ancient times, tk n Christian interpretatin, metaphr, great chain f being: hierarchy f all f gd's creatins, hw's it differ frm platnic hierarchy (gd n tp), Aristtelian hierarchy is everything has its gal r purpse, interlcking great chain f being each sectin f chain has meaning, significance Great chain f being als used metaphrically, always analgies being drawn between ne link r sectin and anther link r sectin Divine right f kinds did this, king is like father, fathers have authrity ver their wives r children, kind has authrity Yu dn't questin reality Reasn is nt sufficient t knw the whle f reality But we can knw that it's there, hw? This is where religius faith cmes in Hence the necessity f the church Hierarchical rganizatin based n principals f authrity, deference, intercnnectin, a great deal f certainty abut hw the rder f things are suppsed t sit tgether These ideas were cntested Fr varius reasns this whle system is questined mrally, philsphically, in terms f religin, and practical realities Shift away frm medieval perid t mdern perid This breakdwn ccurs t the pint where the very grunding fr the things that make us human What makes humans human in this great chain f being? Humans have reasn, we have mral chice, we have religius faith The grunding fr these beliefs is called int questin Related t this, the basis fr human scieties themselves: why shuld peple live in cmmunities tgether? Hbbes and Lcke - fr the first time, sciety has t be explained, plitical bligatin has t be explained n new grunds, what wuld have been previusly taken fr granted as the plitical basis Significance f what Kant is ding is understand when we understand this larger cntext When we read Kant, there are clues as t what was actually happening, what phenmena mst imprtant and why? He's telling us smething abut this cntext in terms f the questins with which he was cncerned Slutins he psed were made pssible by the cntext he was writing in

5 They weren't slutins he wuld have just came up with, wuld have been incmprehensible One f the mst imprtant fr Kant, and well knwn slutin was his idea f the very surce f meaning f what it is t be human, the surce f what he calls ur dignity f man is the fact that we are mrally autnmus, we're truly human in s far as we will t act ut f duty, t act accrding t the dictates f practical reasn Kant's mral thery was the mst imprtant part f his whle philsphy fr himself, Als wrte abut thery f knwledge, esthetics, histry and purpse, whether yu can find any purpse fr human beings in nature, wrte abut plitics These aspects, particular mral and knwledge, Inheritrs agreed with him r nt, and mst didn't, German idealism, rmanticism, utilitarianism - ppsing liberal mral philsphy (dentlgical thery vs. utilitarian thery) All f these different theries and mvements engage with Kant, can't avid it, use his terms f reference Need cntextual reference t grasp significance f these arguments All thinkers in this curse are critical thinkers in that they're a prduct f their time, shaped by this cntext f which they are a part, als take a critical attitude t majr cncepts and majr assumptins, cnstitute framewrk f their time Means they dn't simply reject dminant cnceptins r criticize them; they make them explicit, they draw them ut, subject them t critical scrutiny, this is what cnstitutes ding critical plitical thery In general, ding thery, engaging in thery, isn't just simply abut memrizing texts and matching theries t names, it refers t the way we make sense f ur experiences r any given subject Can think f thery as a way f filtering, interpreting ur experiences They are scial and histrical, invlves cllective acceptance r recgnitin, s cnceptual framewrk will nt be the same fr all places and all times It implies mral cdes, ideas f duty, bligatins and s n It's material in sme way but als cnceptual A critical thinker will make explicit these framewrks When we think abut critical thery, we're thinking f any thery that's selfcnsciusly critical in this way Smething we get frm reading texts like these, is that we get an understanding that these ideas and values are truly histrical, this wuld invlve the ideas that really infrm mdern western cnceptual paradigms which are ften taken fr granted, freedm truth, reasn, prgress, natural equality, human rights It's imprtant t keep in mind these framewrks, these bundles f ideas did nt emerge naturally, nt in a smth r linear fashin, they're very much a prduct f histrical develpment, a prduct f great deal f struggle and cnflict The therists wh prmte these ideas d s in a cntradictry fashin Ex. During enlightenment perid, new ideas and values which becme the nrm, (natural equality, natural freedm), famusly articulated in secnd treatise f Lcke - tleratin

6 Verse f ideas in the beginning, but then becme dminant paradigm Had cncrete plitical effect Integrated and assciated with revlutins (French and American) and 17th century Cntradictin is these values were really incrprated int cnstitutin but went hand in hand with practices f clnialism, imperialisms, trade in slaves, exclusin f wmen frm all areas f public life S we're able t read these critically because we're ding s frm a different cntext, althugh infrmed by the same values Critical thinking als imprtant is that when a thery expses and makes explicit this underlying r verarching theretical framewrk, it's als expsing the cnflicts in the pwer relatins, the exclusins as well as inclusins within any dminant paradigm This apprach, this histricity expses pwer relatins that underlie the cnstructin f any given cnceptual paradigm Fucault: yu can never have knwledge withut pwer Critical thinking takes self-reflective apprach, subjects itself t the same critical scrutiny Miiiiiic In line with enlightenment thinking and the advancement f reasn Kant emphasises limits f ratinal faculties S in a sense, the critiques, his greatest wrks, are themselves ways reasns can. This is an aspect f Kant's thught that are blatantly mic This aspect f Kant's thught, critique f reasn, reasns critiquing itself Critique means smething radical by critique, mving beynd present, disentangling the self, ur capacities, as he puts it in that little piece, frm pwer Fucault's cnceptin f pwer is capillary, insidius, as ppsed t a frce keeping yu dwn as much as backing against us Sexuality never repressed, insighted in perid S we think mic Great netwrks f pwer This is what this little essays Irnically, he reads this int Kant In his piece, what is enlightenment (Fucault) he's nt talking just abut Kant, he's assessing his answer t the questin Questin psed tw centuries earlier, puts ut a questin, invites schlars t answer Kant pses questin f enlightenment and defines it in a special way Desn't define it as an era, an event, smething accmplished Defines it in almst an entirely negative way as an exit, a way ut Fr Kant, what is this way ut? Escaping immaturity Man's escape frm self-impsed immaturity

7 The ability and the will, the curage t use ne's wn reasn t dare t think fr yurself This is nw understd as an enlightenment idea, we'd like t think that we dare t think But Kant is as much f a critic as an embdiment f the enlightenment Enlightenment is paradigm r framewrk, starting pint fr curse All thinkers are engaging with central cncepts and values that cme ut f this perid in western plitical thught All wrking with paradigm infrmed by these ideas that we have pretty much adpted - great value n individual freedm, histrical prgress, thinking fr yurself, reasn But even Kant wh fits mst neatly int this paradigm takes a critical stance tward it as d thers we will cver Kant, Hager, and Marx all wrk within this framewrk f enlightenment, all have idea f prgress f civilizatin f human beings Place a great deal f value n reasn, almst a faith Place a great deal f faith r hpe in the emancipatry, liberatry ptential f science and f technlgical innvatin Each grapple with this ideas in very different ways They identify different challenges, dilemmas that emerge with mdern civilizatin, display certain faith in these things, display level f ptimism abut human cnditin and pssibility f freedm and happiness These ideas very much part f md f the enlightenment, even s in 19th century when Hagel and Marx were writing, these values, this ptimism is cntradicted in human terms There were pverty, urban slums, rise in inequality (different than medieval but unequal nnetheless) Hagel and Marx take these cntradictins as a given, integrate ntin f cntradictin int their understanding f histrical prgress They see histrical change and prgress and see it as really being mtivated by great deal f cnflict r cntradictin, unselfcnsciusness Kant and Fucault: First and final thinkers Their perspectives are apparently far apart, even ppsing, nt just in terms f time perid they're writing in (200 yrs. apart), but in terms f their assumptins, their interests, the methdlgy they're using Kant cnsidered paradigmatic, burgeis thinker; Fucault, anti-mdernist, antihumanist writer Juxtapsitin right there Might seem unfair first day because neither ne is really an intr reading, althugh they cme acrss as deceptively simple at parts

8 They are late pieces, culminate wrks f authrs Will get mre ut f them by re-reading Mic Mic mic mic Kant is less bviusly a critic f enlightenment values, ften seen as culminatin but is als ne f its mst prfund critics Saw it as a prcess, nt as a static thing Didn't see it as finished, cmplete When he writes essay, he's nt saying we are nw enlightened He saw his age as in the prcess f becming enlightened in the sense f becming free frm prejudice and superstitin, becming intellectually, mrally, and plitically mature althugh plitically was a bit mre prblematic fr him Russeau influenced Kant with rigins f inequality He like Russeau is questining this assumptin that yu've fund in main stream f radical enlightenment With acquisitin f mre knwledge and tech. advancements humans were ging t prgress and live mre happy, equitable lives Mic Kant is cncerned t establish limits and bundaries n reasn Nt that he himself is uting limits there, but wants t limit pretentins f reasn Argued that it is pssible t have certain knwledge, but nly within a certain realm, nly certain knwledge f things we culd pssibly experience There are things we cannt knw, including: immrtal sul, gd, whle ntin f ttality -everything fits tgether, can't knw this thrugh faculty f cgnitin Desn t make him a skeptic What is said was that he has t establish limits n reasn and cgnitin in rder t make rm fr faith - nt just religius belief, ability t think things Can't knw existence f gd r freedm as an idea as a thing but we can think it and act freely When we try t extend reasn in terms f cgnitin beynd its capabilities, beynd its bunds, we fall int illusin, illusin leads t skepticism, skepticism invites things like mral relativism, impedes ur ability t act as free mral agents, dare t think fr yurself Majr tendencies in s called self-identified age f reasn are present in Kant, in this essay Kant's essay reads in ptimistic way - pssibilities f sciences and arts Mic Fucault inspired by limit attitude - mic Kant says this limited attitude leads us t a questin, in line with his wn apprach, "If what is given t us is universal.