Workshop held at Northumbria University, Saturday, 27th September 2008
Sponsored by The Complexity and Change Network
Prenotes for Kant and Foucault sessions by
David Large
For the Kant session I will go through:
Immanuel Kant - An
Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist
Aufklärung?, 1784.
It can be also downloaded from here.
Background
In the December 1784 edition of Berlinische Monatsschrift
(Berlin Monthly) Kant replied to the question posed the
previous year by the Reverend Johann Friedrich Zöllner – “What is
Enlightenment?”
Kant’s essay opens with a famous definition of Enlightenment as the
ability to think for yourself not only with your intellect, but with
courage. Thus Sapere aude! (dare to know) becomes the rallying cry
of the Enlightenment.
Kant goes on to address the causes of a lack of enlightenment and
the pre-conditions necessary for people to enlighten themselves. In
short, all church and state paternalism should be abolished so that
people become free to use their own intellect, with courage.
Question
Once you have read the text, please think about this question:
Does the Enlightenment represent progress?
For the Foucault session I will look at:
Michel Foucault -
What
is Enlightenment? (Qu'est-ce que les Lumières?),
1978, in Rabinow P, editor, The Foucault Reader, New York, Pantheon Books, 1984,
pp. 32-50.
It can also be downloaded from
here.
We won’t have time to discuss every area raised by Foucault. I will therefore focus on
his direct response to Kant’s essay. As he says:
Today when a periodical asks its readers a question, it does so in order to collect
opinions on some subject about which everyone has an opinion already; there is not
much likelihood of learning anything new. In the eighteenth century, editors preferred to
question the public on problems that did not yet have solutions. I don't know whether or
not that practice was more effective; it was unquestionably more entertaining.
Also please try to read (at least) the first section and the conclusion of Amy Allen’s
perceptive account:
Amy Allen – Foucault and Enlightenment: A Critical Reappraisal
Question
Once you have done your reading, please think about this question:
Does the Post-Enlightenment represent progress?
Additional Notes
Sketch of Condorcet's Sketch
by Caspar Hewett
Henri de Saint-Simon: The Great Synthesist
by Caspar Hewett
Auguste Comte – High Priest of Positivism
by Caspar Hewett
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