Immanuel Kant, “An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment” (1784)

1. Immanuel Kant, “An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment” (1784) Assist. Prof. Benoît Ellerbach

2. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) • Was born and died in Königsberg (East Prussia; Kaliningrad, Russia since 1946) • Studied philosophy at the university of Königsberg • Taught logic, metaphysics, moral philosophy, natural theology, mathematics, physics, mechanics, geography, anthropology, pedagogy and natural law. • 1781 First edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (Kritik der reinenVernunft) [1787, second edition] • 1784 “An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?” (“Beantwortungder Frage: Was istAufklärung?”) • 1784 “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose” (“Ideezueinerallgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicherAbsicht”) • 1785 Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (GrundlegungzurMetaphysik der Sitten) • 1788 Critique of Practical Reason (Kritik der praktischenVernunft) • 1790 Critique of Judgment (Kritik der Urteilskraft) • 1795 Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (“ZumewigenFrieden”)

3. “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?” • Published in December 1784 in the journal BerlinischeMonatsschrift • Public organ of Berliner Mittwochsgesellschaft (Berlin Wednesday Society), a secret society of “Friends of the Enlightenment” • Answer to the following question formulated by Johann Friedrich Zöllner: “What is enlightenment? This question, which is almost as important as what is truth, should indeed be answered before one begins enlightening! And still I have never found it answered!”

4. Class outline • Overview of the Enlightenment • “An answer to the question: What is Enlightenment?”- Kant’s Definition • Political and historical context in Prussia: “This age is the age of enlightenment or the century of Frederick” (62) • Why is Kant concentrating on religion in his essay? • Enlightenment as “engine and a fundamental condition for progress” towards a cosmopolitan ideal?

5. Overview of the Enlightenment

6. The transformation of the state and of the conception of power in the 17th century • Louis XIV (1638 – 1715) – Louis the Great, The Sun King as model of absolutist power (The sovereign power in the hands of the king who claims to rule by divine right) • “reason of state”, i.e. the idea that national interest should prevail in order to strengthen and assert the statenationally and internationally.

7. A central government for a centralized state • royal council with ministers • creation of an unified centralized administrative system for more efficiency • creation of a standing army ready for war at all times • to pay for all of this: mercantilism (rationalizing the economy in order to put it at the service of the king/state)

8. Model for the European states, from the 17th century onwards • This contributed to the rise of a new class – the bourgeoisie: social reality but politically inexistent and underprivileged during the Ancien Régime • The industrial and commercial developments and social changes contributed to the emergence of the Enligthenment

9. Enlightenment • Beginning: • Descartes’ cogito ergo sum in his Discourse on the Method in 1637? • Death of Louis XIV in 1715? • End: • French Revolution in 1789? • Napoleonic Wars starting in 1804? • a cultural, intellectual, literary and philosophical movement which promoted rational thinking and a broad circulation of knowledge • Enlightenment in English, Lumières in French, Aufklärungin German

10. Coreideas of Enlightenment • Calls for a shift from a position of fear, a servitude to dogma, to an individual, intellectual emancipation. • Aims to surpass the obscurantism of the political and religious ideas of the past (the so-called Dark Ages of the Middle Ages) and promotes and disseminate knowledge • Facilitated by progress made in the printing press and by the progressive transition from publications in Latin to vernacular languages like English, French or German

11. Estimated output of printed books in Europe from ca. 1450 to 1800. A book isdefined as printedmattercontaining more than 49 pages.

12. Enlightenment and the public sphere • literary salons • scientific, literary, philosophical or art academies (like the one in Dijon which organized the prize competition on the origin of inequality that Rousseau won) • Masonic lodges • coffeehouses • printed books, journals, dictionaries or encyclopedias

13. Diderot’s and d’Alembert’sEncyclopedia • 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of plates between 1751 and 1772 • Containing 74,000 articles written by more than 130 contributors • massive reference work for the arts and sciences, way of spreading the ideas of the French Enlightenment all over Europe • Enormous impact

14. The individual as thinking subject • The world is intelligible and can be explained through the use of reason • Man as a social being • The organization of society, of the state, the establishment of law (cf. Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality)

15. Ideals • Fight for individual liberty, religious tolerance and equality • Fight against the irrational, the arbitrary, obscurantism, superstition • As a contribution to progress of human mind and civilization

16. Political reality • Censorship • Voltaire and Diderot imprisoned • authors had to publish their works abroad (in Switzerland or in Holland) or anonymously • protection by patrons • exile

17. “An answer to the question: WhatisEnlightenment?” Kant’sDefinition • “Enlightenment is mankind's exit from its self-incurred immaturity.” (58) • “Aufklärungist der Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner selbstverschuldetenUnmündigkeit.” • etw. aufklären: literally to shed light on sth, to explain, make sth clear

18. Truereform • Emancipation from “the guidance of another”, one will have “to work himself out” of it. • Emancipation that does not require anything else but courage (not caused by a lack of intellect or of education) • “true reform of a way of thinking” (59)(wahreReform der Denkungsart) => not somethingsuperficial

19. Role of the intellectuals/ruler • “there are only a few who have managed to free themselves from immaturity through the exercise of their own minds”, and “that a public [Publikum] should enlighten itself is more likely; indeed, it is nearly inevitable, if only it is granted freedom” (59) • Enlightened leaders, thinkers, philosophers will “spread among the herd the spirit of rational assessment of individual worth and the vocation of each man to think for himself” (59) • Introduces in his definition of Enlightenment the decisive role of both the intellectuals (spread the idea of individual emancipation) and of the state (guarantees the necessary freedom)

20. Against the idea of a revolution • If no freedom, risk of a revolution • “a public can achieve enlightenment only gradually. A revolution may perhaps bring about the fall of an autocratic despotism and of an avaricious or overbearing oppression, but it can never bring about the true reform of a way of thinking. Rather, new prejudices will serve, like the old, as the leading strings of the thoughtless masses.” • Kant to Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi in 1789: Kant saw in the “current crisis of Europe” “a wise advice for despots”

21. Necessary conditions • “For this enlightenment, however, nothing more is required than freedom; […] the freedom to make a public use of one's reason in all matters.” (59) • “the public use of reason must at all times be free, and it alone can bring about enlightenment among men; the private use of reason, however, may often be very narrowly restricted without the progress of enlightenment being particularly hindered. I understand, however,under the public use of his own reason, that use which anyone makes of it as a scholar [Gelehrter] before the entire public of the reading world.” (59-60)

22. Restrictions of the freedom to use one’sreason • Private use: As a part of the machine, the individual has to obey to the rules imposed by his civil post and fulfill his duties so that he does not disturb the commonwealth (3 examples: the officer, the taxpayer and the clergyman) • Public use: but as a scholar, as someone who is knowledgeable about something, the individual should be completely free to express his opinion • fine balance between obedience for the sake of the accomplishment of civil duties and freedom for the sake of progress in society

23. “[…] some members of the commonwealth must conduct themselves passively in order that the government may direct them […] to public ends, or at least restrain them from the destruction of these ends. Here one is certainly not allowed to argue; rather, one must obey. But insofar as this part of the machine considers himself at the same time as a member of the entire commonwealth indeed even of a cosmopolitan society, who in the role of a scholar addresses a public in the proper sense through his writings, he can certainly argue, without thereby harming the affairs in which he is engaged in part as a passive member.” (60)

24. Politicaland historicalcontext in Prussia:“This ageis the age of enlightenment or the century of Frederick” (62) • “If it is asked “Do we now live in an enlightened age?” [in einemaufgeklärtenZeitalter] the answer is “No, but we do live in an age of enlightenment.” [Zeitalter der Aufklärung] As matters now stand, much is still lacking for men to be completely able - or even to be placed in a situation where they would be able - to use their own reason confidently and properly in religious matters without the guidance of another. Yet we have clear indications that the field is now being opened for them to work freely toward this, and the obstacles to general enlightenment or to the exit out of their self-incurred immaturity become ever fewer. In this respect, this age is the age of enlightenment or the century of Frederick.” (62) • AufgeklärtesZeitaltervs Zeitalter der Aufklärung

25. Why “century of Frederick”? • Frederick William I, “the soldier king” (Soldatenkönig) (1713-1740) • austere and militaristic lifestyle, devout Calvinist • rigid management of the treasury • never started a war, • at his death in 1740, full treasury and sound economy

27. Why century of Frederick? • succeeded by his son Frederick II, also called Frederick the Great • very different personality • educated with ideas of the Enlightenment • he was a talented musician • open to the new ideas of his time • he kept a correspondence with Voltaire for 40 years • wrote Antimachiavell(1736): a catalogue of the virtues of the ideal enlightened monarch • loved the battle field, ferocious soldier who fought multiple wars • With him Prussia became the fifth Great Power in Europe

28. Enlightened Absolutism • Frederick II as prototypical figure of the enlightened despot • He called himself “the first servant of the state” (Je suis le premier serviteur de l’Etat) (appears more than 6 times in his memoirs) • The concept was first introduced in 1847 by the historian Wilhelm Roscher. For him, there were 3 forms of absolutist government (Staatsformen) • The early confessional absolutism of Philipp II of Spain (1527-1598) 16th century • The court absolutism of Louis XIV 17thcentury • The enlightened absolutism of Frederick II 18thcentury

29. Enlightened Absolutism • “enlightened absolutism is the rationalization of the state”(Henri Pirenne) • build out a modern, efficient and functioning state that will be able to keep up with the other nations in the fight for supremacy on the European stage • Enlightenment of the monarch as a private person vs Enlightenment of the regime

30. The persona of the enlightened despot • Staged themselves as servants of the people=> merely servants of the state • “Everything for the people, nothing by the people” (Joseph II) • “He thinks as a philosopher and behaves like a king. Glory, interest, here is his God, his law.” (Il pense en philosophe et se comporte en Roi. La gloire, l’intérêt, voilà son Dieu, saloi) (Rousseau) < foreign politics, war • Nevertheless: the reforms conducted under the rule of enlightened despots like Frederick II in Prussia or Maria Theresia or Joseph II in Austria paved the way to the rule of law and and the renunciation of arbitrariness

31. Enlightened reforms • laws should be legally binding and the same for all subjects = General State Laws for the Prussian States AllgemeinesLandrechtfür die PreußischenStaaten, promulgated in 1794 but codified under the orders of Frederick II. • religious tolerance: renunciation of the principle „Cuiusregio, eiusreligio“ • under certain circumstances, freedom of opinion and reduction of censorship • abolition of torture (Prussia 1740), better conditions of imprisonment, limitations on capital punishment (death penalty) • liberalization of serfdom • further centralization and bureaucratization of the state • introduction or improvement of compulsory education (Prussia 1717/1763, Austria 1774) but was mostly for nobility = the other subjects should learn how to read and write but “not know too much” (FII). • further development in education, universities, army, judiciary system etc.

32. A ‘gentlemen’s agreement’? • A ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ between a ruler and a philosopher who wants to make sure he will be able to publish his works? • Kant keeps reassuring the prince in the text: • “public peace and unity have little to fear from this freedom” (62) • “no danger in allowing his subjects to make public use of their reason” (63)

33. Why is Kant concentrating on religion in his essay? • Three main reasons: • Historical reason: Kant was looking back on 250 years of violent religious debates and oppositions which led to the worst conflicts humanity faced • Against cuiusregio, eiusreligio (“whose realm, his religion”) “What even a people may not decide for itself can even less be decided for it by a monarch; for his lawgiving authority consists in his uniting the collective will of the people in his own.” (62) • Philosophical reason: it is part of the freedom of the individual to believe • Pragmatic and strategic reason: Frederick II was known as the champion of religious tolerance => speaking about religion as a safe way to speak about the use of reason “in all matters”

34. Frederick II and ReligiousFreedom • “A prince who does not find it unworthy of himself to say that he regards it as a duty to prescribe nothing to men regarding religious matters […] is himself enlightened”(62) • “Berlinisefreedom of thought and writing” was nothing more than “the freedom to make as much fun as you like of religion” (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in 1769)

35. More thanjust about religion? • “But it is absolutely forbidden to unite […] in a permanent religious constitution that no one may publicly doubt, and thereby to negate a period of progress of mankind toward improvement. One man may indeed postpone […] enlightenment in that which it is incumbent for him to know; but to renounce it […] is to violate and to trample on the sacred rights of mankind.” (61-62)

36. Enlightenment as “engine and fundamental condition for progress” towards a cosmopolitan ideal? • “When nature has, under this hard shell, developed the seed for which she cares most tenderly-namely, the inclination and the vocation for free thinking - this works back upon the character of the people (who thereby become more and more capable of acting freely) and finally even on the principles of government, which finds it to its advantage to treat man, who is now more than a machine, in accord with his dignity.” (63)

37. “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose” (1784) (“Ideezueinerallgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicherAbsicht”) • Enlightenment is mentioned as the engine and fundamental condition for progress towards the “civic union of the human race”. • In a teleological approach, Kant defends the idea that the history of humanity as a whole has a goal which is the establishment of a unrealized ideal cosmopolitan state through the use of reason and the general spreading of Enlightenment “Nature’ssecret plan to bringforth a perfectlyconstitutedstate”.

38. “Enlightenment comes gradually, with intermittent folly and caprice, as a great good which must finally save men from the selfish aggrandizement of their masters, always assuming that the latter know their own interest. This enlightenment, and with it a certain commitment of heart which the enlightened man cannot fail to make to the good he clearly understands, must step by step ascend the throne and influence the principles of government.”

39. Conclusion • Kant gives a definition of a historical, intellectual and philosophical movement of the 18th century • Paves the way for progress of mankind throughout history • Enlightenment = before everything an emancipation that will eventually lead to the constitution of better states which will be morally funded and anchored in the rule of law. • Enlightened absolutism is nothing else but a transitory phase in the process towards republicanism (= seperation of executive and judicative for Kant)

40. SAPERE AUDE!