What Is Enlightenment?

Published in 1784, “What Is Enlightenment?” is considered one of Kant’s mature works, written around the same time that he was working on the central works of his career, the three critiques: Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, and Critique of Judgment. While these works deal with highly complex philosophical questions in mostly technical jargon, “What Is Enlightenment?” approaches the more popular (at the time) question of enlightenment in the much more accessible forum of a monthly magazine. As a result, it provides insight into the core of Kant’s philosophy in a more readily understandable way than the larger works.

As their titles suggest, the three critiques are critical examinations of the mental faculties and reasoning processes of human beings. In “What Is Enlightenment?” Kant makes it clear that he believes that human beings are fundamentally capable of being rational and governing themselves. He wants people to justify their beliefs and actions in themselves rather than by appealing to some outside authority such as a religious text, a local tradition, or a political leader—i.e., he expresses the importance of Thinking for Oneself. This clarifies what is at stake in the three critiques: In them, Kant aims to give a comprehensive account of humanity’s ability to be rational and self-governing. Because Kant defines “enlightenment” as humankind’s emergence into this kind of autonomy, the achievement of enlightenment is the ultimate goal of the vast body of his work. In the critiques, Kant offers some of philosophy’s most important and influential accounts of knowledge, the human mind, and morality, and “What Is Enlightenment?” clarifies what these accounts are meant to accomplish.