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Humanism and the Enlightenment


Progress of the Human Mind: From Enlightenment to Postmodernism

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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Related Links

On this site

Progress of the Human Mind workshop details
Humanism and the Enlightenment
The Three Cs and the Notion of Progress: Copernicus, Condorcet, Comte by Caspar Hewett
John Locke’s Theory of Knowledge (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding) by Caspar Hewett
Life of Voltaire by Caspar Hewett
The Great Blank Slate Debate

On the web

An Answer to the question "What is Enlightenment?" by Immanuel Kant
What is Enlightenment? by Michel Foucault
Foucault and Enlightenment: A Critical Reappraisal by Amy Allen

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© C J M Hewett, 2008