Kant’s Conception of Enlightenment (Essay Sample)

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Kant’s Conception of Enlightenment
Many individuals know Immanuel Kant as one of the central figures in philosophy. Kant set much of the philosophy standards between the 19th and 20th centuries based on empiricism and rationalism. His philosophical ideas about how humans should govern themselves are exercised by individuals to the current date. Kant's philosophical ideas significantly influence politics, ethics, and metaphysics. Kant existed during the Enlightenment period in which individuals in Europe aimed to erase religious superstitions and traditions and replace them with human reasoning. Kant aimed to relieve human thought from political and religious bondage constraints and advocate individuals to become free independent thinkers. This paper explores an understanding of Kant’s aims and principles of Enlightenment and how it has served as a turning point for human freedom and development.
Kant's view on Enlightenment was unique and original compared to the views of his contemporaries. He gives an overview of how the human mind was before the enlightenment period, and he states that individuals could not independently use their rational capacity. He also argues that individuals could not utilize their intellectual powers with another individual's guidance, and he named such situations tutelage (Kant 29). From his perspective, the human mind depended on another person's instructions and could obey such instructions without questioning. Under this condition of guidance and instructions, intellectual powers could not freely think for themselves; thus, human Enlightenment would be impossible. Before Enlightenment, Kant described the human mind that would persist in adolescence due to cowardly behaviors and laziness. Kant argues that such a condition is shameful in arts and sciences and could not continue. Individuals had to free themselves from cowardice and laziness to develop their intellectual reasoning.
Kant provides insight into why there was no enlightenment taking place among individuals during the enlightenment period. His idea states that individuals were passive because they felt no reason to question or rebel against state and religious authorities. He also argued that laziness became part and parcel of individuals' activities since they felt at peace and