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Essay on Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804)

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Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) Author of Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785). "The Enlightenment was a desire for human affairs to be guided by rationality than by faith, superstition, or revelation; a belief in the power of human reason to change society and liberate the individual from the restraints of custom or arbitrary authority; all backed up by a world view increasingly validated by science rather than by religion or tradition." (Outram 1995) In the eighteenth century, people started questioning the authority and knowledge of the church. New ideas placing human reason over faith and blind obedience began arising. This period in history is known as the Enlightenment. It is a movement, still in progress, …show more content…

His lectures were "witty and learned," and people went to Konigsberg from all over Germany in order to hear them. Also, his many writings provided a profound climax and closure to the period we know today as the Enlightenment. In an essay for the Berlinische Monatsschrift, Kant writes "Sapere aude, have the courage to know: this is the motto of Enlightenment." Like his predecessors before him, Kant encouraged people to be informed, not just with the necessary information to survive, but with the information to really live and be prosperous. He sees the masses as they are: a large group of uneducated mind-controlled beings. He sees them as slaves to unjust rulers and kings, and also denounces the strict creeds and laws followed in religions. It is mere blind obedience when, as he believes, each person has the capability to know God and understand the universal moral code he laid the foundations for. The masses are deliberately very childish in their beliefs, and therefore, the Enlightenment is "man's release from his self incurred immaturity." The Enlightenment was more than just the need for the education of the masses, it seemed to present itself more as a series of processes and problems than a list of deeds needing accomplished. Although most of the renowned thinkers

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