What is enlightenment?

237 Pages·2013·1.13 MB·English

by  Kant

What is Enlightenment?
Have the courage to use your own understanding! – that is the motto of
enlightenment.
Immanuel Kant
The Enlightenment is one of the most important and contested periods in the
history of philosophy. The problems it addressed, such as the proper extent of
individual freedom and the challenging of tradition, resonate as much today
as when they were first debated. Of all philosophers, it is arguably Kant
who took such questions most seriously, addressing them above all in his
celebrated short essay An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?
In this engaging and lucid book, Samuel Fleischacker first explains and
assesses Kant’s philosophy of Enlightenment. He then considers critics of
Kant’s views – from Burke and Hegel to Horkheimer and Adorno – and
figures he regards as havingextended Kant’s notion of enlightenment, such as
Feuerbach,Marx,Habermas, Foucault and Rawls.
Throughout, he demonstrates how Kant holds two distinct theories of
enlightenment. On the one hand, Kant proposes a “minimal” view, where to
be enlightened is simply to engage in critical public discussion, allowing a
diversity of opinion to flourish. On the other, he argues that Kant calls for a
“maximal” view of enlightenment, where, for example, an enlightened person
cannot believe in a traditional religion. With great skill Fleischacker shows
how these two views are taken in a multitude of directions by both critics
and advocates of Kant’s philosophy.
Arguing that Kant’s minimal enlightenment is a precondition for a healthy
proliferation of cultures, religious faiths and political movements, What is
Enlightenment? is a fascinating introduction to a key aspect of Kant’s thought
and a compelling analysis of philosophical thinking about the Enlightenment.
Including helpful chapter summaries and guides to further reading, it is ideal
for anyone studying Kant or the philosophy of the Enlightenment, as well as
those in related disciplines such as politics, history and religious studies.
Samuel Fleischacker is Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Illinois–Chicago, USA.
’
KANT S QUESTIONS
Seriesadvisor:AllenWood,StanfordUniversity,USA
“The Kant’s Questions series is thoroughly excellent. The books combine depth of philosophical
treatmentwithafluid,easily-readablestyle,offeringoriginalhistoricalinterpretationsofKant’swrit-
ings with an illuminating attentiveness to issues of contemporary relevance. All in all, the series
revealsthestunningdepth,power,andlastingimpactofKant’swritings.”
—RobertHanna,UniversityofColoradoatBoulder,USA
“This is an excellently conceived series by internationally renowned Kant scholars who, unusually,
focus not on individual works or sub-disciplinary fields of inquiry but engage with those questions
which Kant took to be of perennial philosophical interest. Engagingly and accessibly written whilst
meeting exemplary standards of scholarship, these volumes will prove an invaluable resource for
studentsandteachersofKant’sphilosophyalike.”
—KatrinFlikschuh,LondonSchoolofEconomics,UK
“ByprovidingcarefulanddetailedaccountsofKant’sanswerstowhatheconsideredtobethemost
fundamental questions of philosophy, the books in this series constitute excellent introductions to
thekeyaspectsofKant’sphilosophy.Moreover,bytracingthedevelopmentofthesequestionsand
ideastothepresentday,theycontextualisecontemporarydebateswithinahistoricalnarrativeina
waythatallowsthereadertograspthecontinuingrelevanceandsignificanceofKant’squestionsand
theanswersthatheputforward.”
—RalfM.Bader,NewYorkUniversity,USA
Thefieldofphilosophy…canbereducedtothefollowingquestions:WhatcanIknow?Whatought
Itodo?WhatmayIhope?Whatisthehumanbeing?Metaphysicsanswers the first question,
morals the second, religion the third, and anthropology the fourth.
ImmanuelKant
With the addition of his celebrated essay An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? Kant
bequeathsusfivefundamentalquestionsthatcontinuetoresonateandchallengetoday.
Kant’sQuestionsexploresthephilosophicalmeaningandsignificanceofeachquestion.Takenindividually,
each book is a fresh and innovative introductionto a fundamental aspect of Kant’s thought. Taken
together,theseriesisanoutstandingresourceonthecentralquestionsmotivatingKant’sphilosophical
andintellectualoutlookasawhole.
Each book shares a clear structure. The first part introduces Kant’s question, explaining his own
answer to it; the second part explores historical criticisms to the question; and the third and final
part of the book places the question in a contemporary philosophical context. Also included are
chaptersummariesandahelpfulsectionofannotatedfurtherreadingattheendofeachchapter.
TheKant’sQuestionsseriesisessentialreading,notonlyforallstudentsofKant,butthosestudying
subjects such as ethics, metaphysics, philosophy of human nature and the history of philosophy, as
wellasthoseinrelateddisciplinessuchasreligiousstudies,politicsandsociology.
(cid:2) Whatisthehumanbeing?PatrickFrierson
(cid:2) Whatisenlightenment?SamuelFleischacker
(cid:2) WhatcanIknow?MichelleGrier
(cid:2) WhatshouldIdo?JulianWuerth
(cid:2) WhatmayIhopefor?AndrewChignell
What is Enlightenment?
Samuel Fleischacker
Firstpublished 2013
byRoutledge
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©2013SamuelFleischacker
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British LibraryCataloguing inPublication Data
Acataloguerecordfor thisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongress Cataloging inPublication Data
Fleischacker, Samuel.
Whatisenlightenment? /bySamuel Fleischacker.
p.cm.–(Kant’squestions)
Includesbibliographical references(p.)andindex.
1.Enlightenment. 2.Kant,Immanuel, 1724-1804.I. Title.
B802.F542012
190.9’033–dc23
2012029612
ISBN:978-0-415-48606-4 (hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-49781-7 (pbk)
ISBN:978-0-203-07046-8 (ebk)
Typeset inGaramond andGillsans
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations viii
Introduction 1
PARTI
Kant’s enlightenment 9
1 The official story 11
2 A different side of Kant 32
PARTII
Critics (I) 41
3 From Hamann to Burke 43
4 Hegel 58
PARTIII
Maximalists 69
5 From Strauss to Marx 71
PARTIV
Critics (II) 91
6 Forerunners 93
7 Horkheimer/Adorno; Foucault 102
8 Difference critics 119
vi Contents
PARTV
Minimalists 133
9 Foucault, Habermas, Rawls 135
PARTVI
Kantian enlightenment today 157
10 Assessing Foucault, Habermas, and Rawls 159
11 In defense of Kantian enlightenment 169
Notes 194
Bibliography 222
Index 229
Acknowledgments
I want to thank my editor at Routledge, Tony Bruce, for the idea for this
book, and the series of which it is a part; it has been a pleasure to work
with him. I also want to thank the Brady Scholars Program at North-
western, its director Laurie Zoloth, and her assistant, Kathleen Arbuckle,
for support and encouragement during the year in which I started this
project. Among the many people whose conversation and advice on the
manuscript have helped me as I’ve proceeded, I am particularly grateful
to Kyla Ebels Duggan, Andy Koppelman, Joshua Kleinfeld, Richard
Kraut, Tony Laden, Charles Mills, and Mark Rosen, who read and gave
me extensive comments on the entire manuscript. Steve Engelmann
helped keep me honest on Foucault, and Sankar Muthu helped clarify
Kant’s views on race. The graduate students in my class on “What Is
Enlightenment?” at the University of Illinois–Chicago (UIC) often taught
me as much as I was teaching them: my thanks to Janella Baxter, Adam
Betz, Keziban Der, Kamran Fallah, Marcello Grigolo, Kei Hotoda, and
Saniye Vatansever. Thanks to Saniye, in addition, for doing the index.
I’ve also learned from discussions with audiences at UIC, Northwestern
University, the University of Haifa, the University of Corfu, and the Uni-
versityof Ioannina. Ken Alder, Dionysus Drosos, Amihud Gilead, Sanford
Goldberg, CristinaLaFont,ArielMeirav,OrrScharf,DannyStatman,Daniel
Sutherland, Fotini Vaki, Allen Wood, and Rachel Zuckert raised points
that especially helped shape this project. I am grateful, also, to Dionysus
and Fotini for inviting me to speak at their universities, and to Danny for
inviting me to speak at Haifa. Mary Beth Rose and Linda Vavra sponsored
and ran a workshop at UIC, called “Kant’s 5 Questions,” for all five authors
in Routledge’s series on Kant’s questions, which Routledge helped
support – my thanks to everyone involved in that.
As always, I also want to thank my wife Amy, who supports and helps
me in everything.
S.F.
February 24, 2012
Abbreviations
The following works will be referred to in the text by an abbreviation
(full publication details for them can be found in the Bibliography).
Pagination for all of Kant’s works will be to the standard German Aka-
demie edition; in the case of CPR this will mean using “A” for the first
edition and “B” for the second, as is standard.
An Immanuel Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View,
trans. V.L. Dowdell
BNR Jürgen Habermas, Between Naturalism and Religion, trans.
Ciaran Cronin
CF Immanuel Kant, The Conflict of the Faculties, trans. Mary Gregor
CJ Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment, trans.
P. Guyer and E. Matthews
CP Michael Kelly (ed.), Critique and Power
CPR ImmanuelKant,CritiqueofPureReason,trans.P.GuyerandA.
Wood.
CPrR Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, trans. L.W. Beck
DE Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment,
trans. John Cumming
EO Max Stirner, The Ego and Its Own, trans. D. Leopold
FB Ludwig Feuerbach, The Fiery Brook: Selected Writings of Ludwig
Feuerbach, trans. Z. Hanfi
FR Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. P. Rabinow
FWE Michel Foucault, “What Is Enlightenment?,” in FR
G Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Mary Gregor
MER Robert Tucker (ed.), The Marx–Engels Reader, 2nd ed.
OL John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, ed. Elizabeth Rapaport
PDM Jürgen Habermas, Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, trans.
F. Lawrence
PL John Rawls, Political Liberalism
PS G.W.F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A.V. Miller
RRF Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, ed. Conor
Cruise O’Brien
Abbreviations ix
RWB Immanuel Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason,
trans. and ed. A. Wood and G. di Giovanni
ST Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public
Sphere, trans. T. Burger and F. Lawrence
SWE James Schmidt (ed.), What Is Enlightenment? Eighteenth-Century
Answers and Twentieth-Century Questions
TP Immanuel Kant, “On the Common Saying: ‘That May be True
inTheory, but It Doesn’t ApplyinPractice’” [commonly known
as “Theory and Practice”], in Political Writings, trans. H.B.
Nisbet, ed. H. Reiss, 2nd ed.
WC Michel Foucault, “What Is Critique?,” in SWE
WE Immanuel Kant, “What Is Enlightenment?” My translations,
with the help of L.W. Beck, in Foundations of the Metaphysics of
Morals, H.B. Nisbet, in H. Reiss (ed.), Political Writings, and
Mary Gregor, in Kant’s Practical Philosophy
WO Immanuel Kant, “What Is Orientation in Thinking?,” in
RWB