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Philosophy

What is Enlightenment? Kant and the Age of Reason

Kant's question — dare to think — and the age that asked it. Reason, autonomy, the public use of reason, the critical turn, and Enlightenment's critics. Modelled on Open University seminar 10393.

0 / 21 lessons complete

Unit 1 · Kant's Question

  1. Sapere aude: the motto of Enlightenment In 1784 Kant answered a magazine's question with one of philosophy's most famous sentences — dare to think. 8 min
  2. Laziness, cowardice, and the guardians Why is it so comfortable to let others think for us — a book, a pastor, a doctor — and so hard to break free? 8 min
  3. Two answers: Kant and Mendelssohn Kant was not the only one answering the question in 1784 — Moses Mendelssohn, father of the Jewish Enlightenment, answered too. 8 min
📝 Unit 1 Quiz — Kant's Question Quiz · not attempted yet

Unit 2 · The Age of Reason

  1. The century of light A whole century took light as its emblem and “dare to know” as its dare. What did the Enlightenment stand for? 8 min
  2. The philosophes and the Encyclopédie The Enlightenment’s heroes were not system-builders but public writers — and their great weapon was an encyclopedia. 9 min
  3. Newton and Locke: the empirical spirit The Enlightenment’s twin patron saints were a physicist and a philosopher — nature is lawful, and the mind learns from experience. 8 min
  4. Radical and moderate Enlightenment Was the Enlightenment out to reform faith and monarchy — or to bury them? It was doing both, in two wings. 8 min
📝 Unit 2 Quiz — The Age of Reason Quiz · not attempted yet

Unit 3 · The Public Use of Reason

  1. The public and private use of reason Kant's strangest and sharpest distinction — the freedom that enlightens is the freedom of the scholar, not the office-holder. 9 min
  2. “Argue as much as you want — but obey!” Frederick the Great's bargain, and why for Kant the freedom of the pen is the one freedom that can free a people. 8 min
  3. An age of enlightenment, not an enlightened age Are we there yet? Kant's careful answer — no, but we're on the way — and his case for reform over revolution. 8 min
📝 Unit 3 Quiz — The Public Use of Reason Quiz · not attempted yet

Unit 4 · Reason on Trial

  1. Waking from dogmatic slumber To trust reason, the Enlightenment first had to put reason itself on trial. Hume lit the fuse; Kant answered. 8 min
  2. 7 + 5 = 12 Kant's deceptively simple example hides the question that reorganizes philosophy: how can we know something new, for certain, in advance? 9 min
  3. The Copernican revolution Kant's master-stroke: stop asking how the mind conforms to objects, and ask how objects conform to the mind. 9 min
  4. Appearances and the limits of reason The Copernican turn buys certainty at a price: we know the world only as it appears to us, never as it is in itself. 8 min
📝 Unit 4 Quiz — Reason on Trial Quiz · not attempted yet

Unit 5 · Autonomy

  1. The good will and duty Kant's ethics begins from something everyone half-knows — only a good will is good without qualification. 8 min
  2. The categorical imperative One supreme principle of morality, in two great formulas — universalize your maxim, and never treat a person as a mere means. 9 min
  3. Autonomy and dignity The deepest idea in Kant's ethics — you are bound only by laws you give yourself, and that self-legislation is the source of human dignity. 8 min
  4. Dare to think, dare to be free Kant's two most famous ideas turn out to be one — Enlightenment is autonomy, the courage to legislate for yourself in thought and in action. 8 min
📝 Unit 5 Quiz — Autonomy Quiz · not attempted yet

Unit 6 · Enlightenment and its Critics

  1. The Counter-Enlightenment Almost at once, powerful thinkers charged that Enlightenment reason was cold, arrogant, and blind to what makes us human. 8 min
  2. When reason turns on itself The twentieth century asked a darker question — did enlightened reason, meant to free us, help build new kinds of domination? 9 min
  3. An unfinished project Two hundred years on, Kant's question is still live. Is Enlightenment a task we abandon — or one we're still called to? 8 min
📝 Unit 6 Quiz — Enlightenment and its Critics Quiz · not attempted yet

🎓 Final exam

🎓 Final Exam — What is Enlightenment? Exam · not attempted yet