Both Kant and Foucault present a question of what is enlightenment? According to Immanuel Kant enlightenment was man’s freedom from his “self-incurred immaturity”. Kant believes that all that is needed to reach enlightenment is freedom. Enlightenment could not be achieved by any one person, we have to do so as a community. Kant said that we should have the freedom to make public use of our reason in all situations. He also believed that revolution is a great way to remove oppressive government heads but it would not teach the community to think in a different way.
Kant says that the matters of religion is the focal point of enlightenment. Thinking and acting freely is mans enlightenment and emerges us from our immaturity. Foucault’s text is a reflection upon Kant’s views on “What is enlightenment? ”. Foucault addresses many of the issues with Kant’s essay on “What is Enlightenment? ” and says that is written in a world era to which no one belongs to. He says that enlightenment is an “exit” or a “way out”.
Focault says that we have not yet reached enlightenment and that once we achieve this enlightenment there will be nowhere else to progress to and we will achieve our limit. I agree with Foucault over Kant’s view on enlightenment. I think as a whole we have not reached our enlightenment and I don’t think we will for a very long time. Although Kant said in order to reach enlightenment we have to do so as a community. We cannot do this because this is something that exceeds our limits as human beings.
The Essay on Mill And Kant Tell Us To Think For Ourselves
Immanuel Kant simply stated the creed of the enlightenment: Dare to know, (Kant 1). To thinkers like Kant, to achieve enlightenment was to gain release fromself-incurred tutelage[the] inability to make use of [ones] understanding without direction from another, (Kant 1). Enlightenment thinkers addressed this issue. They present to us the question; why is it so hard to think for oneself? They ...
