The Enlightenment Thinker, A German Philosopher: Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant, a philosopher, main goal was to discover the answer to how human beings could be genuinely good and kind, apart from the expectations of traditional religions. Immanuel Kant was born in the year 1724 to parents who were extremely modest. His father was a saddle maker who never made an excess amount of money. He was very thankful for his family and all things God had him blessed with. Kant got a late start in his studies, unlike David Hume. It was not until he was in his fifties that he became a professor that acquired a full salary and received a considerable amount of respect. Kant’s family held him to high standards and made it appoint to practice their religious beliefs. As Kant grew in age and knowledge he did not have any orthodox religious beliefs, but still saw the role that religion had played in his parent’s ability to deal with their hardships and blessing and how useful religion could be in creating a society where everyone was united.

Despite the fact that there were countless enlightenment thinkers, there are still many identifiable similarities between various of them. For example Thomas Hobbes and Jean Jacques Rousseau both believed in the need for a social contract, and in individualism. They both disagreed on how to go about these things. Thomas Hobbes described an absolute monarchy with limited rights. Jean Jacques Rousseau on the other hand described an democracy with unalienable rights. These two thinkers are a perfect example who thought of different ideals, practiced them in different ways, but nonetheless helped shape the world we live in today.

In an effort to understand progress and its goal in humanity, philosophers Immanuel Kant and Karl Marx each present their theories with Kant believing progress is made through the reform brought on by antagonism and social instability in humanity which will ultimately lead to perpetual peace, while Marx argues progress comes in the form of a worker’s revolution and the adoption of true communism that will lead to utopia. These German thinkers seek to define the guiding the force beneath humanity’s constant state of evolution to understand where it is headed and advise towards a goal they find ideal for humanity.

The best summary of Kant's view of Enlightenment lies in the first paragraph of his essay "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?": Sapere Aude. Translated 'dare to know,' the phrase "is the motto of enlightenment." For Kant, enlightenment means rising from the self-imposed stupor which substitutes obedience for reason and which atrophies man's ability to think for himself and develop his natural capacities. Laziness and cowardice prevent man from enlightening himself, an activity which becomes harder over time since man becomes comfortable and content in his stupor. Likening mankind to livestock, Kant cites the army officer, the pastor, and the physician as guardians who paralyze man's

Lying the one form of communication that is the untruth expressed to be the truth. Immanuel Kant states that lying is morally wrong in all possible ways. His hatred for lying has made him “just assumed that anyone who lied would be operating with a maxim like this: tell a lie so as to gain some benefit.”(Landau,pp.171) This is true for a vast number of people, they will lie in order to gain a certain benefit from the lie rather than the truth.It is similar to if you play a game of truth or dare, some rather pick a dare because it would release them from having to tell the truth. However, those who do pick truth still have a chance to lie to cover up the absolute truth.People lie in order to cover who they truly are. Even if you lie to benefit someone or something else, it would not matter to Kant because he does not care for the consequences. If you lie but have a good intention it is not the same for Kant, he would argue that you still lied no matter the consequence that a lie is a lie. “ While lying, we accuse others for not being transparent. While being hypocrites ourselves, we expect others to be sincere.” (Dehghani,Ethics) We know how it feels to be lied to by a person, so in order to not have the feeling returned, we hope the person will be truthful. We rather be surrounded by truthful people constantly despite all the lies that some people tell. No

Enabled by the Scientific revolution, the Enlightenment brought new ideas and different ways of thinking to the growing modern society. The enlightenment was an intellectual movement that spread throughout western civilization starting around 1650 CE. Who were the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment? Well, many different individuals had a great impact on this movement. They contributed their ideas and spoke for their personal beliefs. Three of the most influential thinkers of the enlightenment were Mary Wollstonecraft, John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson. Mary Wollstonecraft had a strong belief in equal rights for woman, John Locke shared his ideas about individual rights, and Thomas Jefferson spread his ideas about intellectual

Every Enlightenment Philosopher in the 1600’s had different views on how a human being was structured and how it worked, they had different beliefs and opinions that may or may not be true.

Immanuel Kant was an enlightenment philosopher who went into great detail what enlightenment entitles in his essay “What is Enlightenment” in the eighteenth century. After examining the aspects of enlightenment according to Kant, I plan to critique his concept of enlightenment in four areas, including: his views on the passive citizen and freedom, his view on the free and public use of reason, his views on immaturity, and his views on scholarship and tolerance in enlightenment.

Immanuel Kant remains to this day as one of the most influential philosophes in the history of Western philosophy. In his essay writing “What is Enlightenment?” he defines enlightenment as “man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage”[1]. In order to understand Kant’s line of thinking we must understand what he meant by “tutelage”. He describes tutelage or immaturity or incompetence - “the inability to use one’s understanding without direction from another”[1]. According to Kant, immaturity is self-imposed due to laziness and cowardice where therefor does not allow independent thinking and reason for oneself but instead continues to allow others to dictate, think and understand for them. In his essay he asks “Do we presently live in

As a political theorist during the enlightenment Kant’s ideas about using logic and reason to guide thought. The importance of logic in guiding one’s thought to freedom of expression is vital. That same freedom of expression is especially critical in the ever-changing 21st-century perceptions on the idea of “freedom”. Today the most challenging form of freedoms that is hard to protect is one’s presence on online. Kant’s amendment, “Protects the individual right to property that was created and inspired by original thought and is generated on any online entity”, this will protect intellectual property, the natural/inalienable rights granted to everyone and those who oppose may argue its relevance might cause an uproar because of finding the truest of true origins of thought.

In the Arts, many are convinced that we judge an artwork objectively by its beauty, yet the very popular adage of beauty being “in the eye of the beholder” implicates that the appraisal of an artwork is entirely subjective. For example, I consider Bach’s a-minor Violin Concerto as beautiful, whereas the majority of my friends who have listened to it do not share my enthusiasm. Immanuel Kant, however, would disagree with this because in his Kritik der Urteilskraft 9, he states that certain criteria can be applied to any artwork in order to assess its value in terms of beauty. This lies upon his assumption that two observers without any particular interest in the artwork will come to the same judgement. Kant refers to this as “subjective generality”

In this paper I will be talking about the article “What is Enlightenment” by Immanuel Kant. In this paper I will be answering the question that was given at the end of the article. I will talk about what enlightenment and what it entails. What tutelage is according to Kant? Also explain what Kant thought about the subject. What are the conditions for the gradual spread of enlightenment in the community? These are some of the questions that I will be answering in the essay and also give my opinion of the article.

‘Enlightenment is the human being’s emergence from his self-incurred minority. Kant means emergence from a form of slavery, in which one is not free to think for oneself, but instead is told what to think. In a sense, I think it relates to religious and state imposed rules. This is reinforced when Kant suggests to ‘have the courage to make use of your own understanding’, making that the motto of the Enlightenment.

The works of German philosopher’s Immanuel Kant and Karl Marx have played significant roles in the development of different sects of philosophy and religion. Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in Konigsberg, East Prussia, now presently Kaliningrad, to a devout, poverty-stricken family of eleven children. Through his works, it is evident that Kant was raised in the religious teachings and values of pietism as his theories show a heavy influence of his religious upbringing. Kant as a young boy was accustomed to a routine of working and studying, and despite never travelling far from his hometown, he grew to be sociable and witty. Karl Marx was born almost a century later in the town of Trier, present-day Germany, in the year 1818 into a middle-class family. Marx studied a variety of disciplines, including law, philosophy and history, and became a preeminent philosopher, a revolutionary economist and a great leader. The revolutions of his time and his profound disapproval of the capitalist economic state inspired his works, particularly his concepts on authority and exploitation and his theory of history.

In 1784, Immanuel Kant states that Enlightenment is the human being’s emergence from his self-incurred minority and the courage to utilize your own discernment.