What is Enlightenment? How does Kant understand the role of the state with respect to the public? How is this role different from that of the other institutions he discusses?
Kant begins with a simple explanation of what constitutes being enlightened: throwing off the shackles of self-imposed immaturity. He then follows with a more precise definition of immaturity: the lack of an ability to take what one has come to understand and utilize it without the assistance of guidance from another.
According to Kant, a monarch lacks the power to decree anything upon his people which they would not decree upon themselves, arguing that the power held by a leader is authority that can only be given by the people, not taken from them. He then explains the powers and duties that should be expected from an enlightened monarch living in an enlightened age before asking whether we live in an enlightened age. Perhaps surprisingly, his answer is no with the caveat that “we do live in an age of enlightenment.”
What is Enlightenment?
