Enlightenment by Kant - Grade: B PDF

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Kant's definition, beliefs, and enlightenment ideas....

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Surname 1 Student’s Name Course Instructor Date Enlightenment by Kant Immanuel Kant was one of the most prolific philosophers and a formidable scholar of his time who came up with various contributions with his most famous being on enlightenment. Kant's contribution to various topics was attributed to his life in academia, where he worked as a professor, which provided him with knowledge on different issues and aspects in Philosophy. In his work on Enlightenment, Kant conveyed his thoughts on the difference between the Enlightenment Age and the Age of Enlightenment. Hence, in this essay, we will focus on Kant's definition, beliefs, and enlightenment ideas.

According to Kant, the lack of enlightenment is caused by various factors, while its presence is driven by only one key element: freedom. Hence, according to him, a person can only be enlightened when one frees himself from the immaturity he causes. Kant goes ahead to explain immaturity as the inability of one to make his or her own decisions but must rely on the opinions and guidance of others to come to an individual decision. Thus according to him, a person is not enlightened unless they can function or respond to things around her without guidance or direction from others. Hence what constitutes enlightenment is the courage of a person to use

Surname 2 one's understanding to make personal decisions without outside input or interference.

According to Kant, the Enlightenment age is the period where we are no longer moving forward in our way of thinking while the age of enlightenment is the opposite. The age of enlightenment refers to when people change the way they think and start having liberal personal ideas with no external influence. According to Kant, the age of enlightenment refers to when the process of individual enlightenment begins to the period of public enlightenment. Hence, the process starts with personal enlightenment, which later becomes a crucial step in the masses' enlightenment. Therefore the Enlightenment age refers to the period after the groups or the public has been enlightened.

According to Kant, the public's use of one's reason is always free and open, which sparks debate on the matters that can be vital in the enlightenment of others. In contrast, private use of one's enlightenment has no impact on other people and cannot spark the public's enlightenment. Kant favors the personal use of enlightenment as, according to him, the public's use of enlightenment leads to the slow attainment of enlightenment. This is because the public's help of one's reason can cause a revolution, which, according to Kant, does not transform the masses' ways of thinking.

One strength of Kant's argument is acknowledging that freedom is the key element to enlightenment. It begins when a person can make his or her own decision without guidance or interference from others. This is very true as one cannot be enlightened if society limits the person from acting or coming up with unique ideas that may not align themselves with others.

Surname 3 However, one major weakness in his arguments is that immaturity hinders one's ability to been enlightened as one cannot make personal decisions. This is not true as making personal decisions cannot at all times be attributed to immaturity but other factors like morality. A person's morality following a particular religion may lead to him or her following what they are told by others like the church leader, which does not necessarily mean that a person is not enlightened.

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Works Cited "Immanuel Kant [kantimman0002126]." Electronic Enlightenment Biographical Dictionary, 2000. "Patriarchy and Enlightenment in Immanuel Kant (1784)." Patriarchal Moments : Reading Patriarchal Texts,...