HTA 9.1; Kant; "An Answer to the Question, 'What is Enlightenment?'" [1784]

Abstract

This episode is part one of one of the lecture series [HTA 9] on Immanuel Kant’s “An Answer to the Question, ‘What is Enlightenment?’” [1784]

Primary Source

Kant, Immanuel. “An Answer to the Question: ‘What Is Enlightenment.’” Translated by Ted Humphreys, 1992 [1784]. https://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/kant_whatisenlightenment.pdf.

• HillJ_ Teacher Exemplar Annotations.

Guiding Questions

• What is enlightenment, for Kant?

• What produces enlightenment?

• What is the difference between the public and private uses of reason?

• Why is it always a violation of human rights to set down a set of rules that can never be questioned, altered, revised, or rewritten?

• What does the monarch owe to its people regarding freedom of reason/thought?