[lit-ideas] Re: One Giant Leap for Enlightenment (1784): Kant's "Answering of the Question, 'What is Enlightenment?'"
- From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:31:45 +0900
So long, that is, that conscience confined itself to private matters along
the lines laid down by Christ, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, render
unto God what is God's." No challenge to Prussian autocracy allowed.
John
On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 11:25 AM, Richard Henninge <
RichardHenninge@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: <cblitid@xxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2012 4:51 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: living on the edge
>
>
> Living on the edge ... of enlightenment?
>>
>> On 26-Aug-12, at 1:01 AM, Robert Paul wrote:
>>
>> From the online edition of the Portland Oregonian.
>>>
>>> http://www.oregonlive.com/**oregon-city/index.ssf/2012/08/**
>>> night_of_drinking_sexting_and.**html<http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2012/08/night_of_drinking_sexting_and.html>
>>>
>>
>> .. which includes the following sentence:
>>
>> "Shaken, he said he smoked marijuana and talked to his cats for about 20
>> minutes to calm himself and 'reason out a plan.' "
>>
>> Cf.: "If it is now asked whether we at present live in an enlightened
>> age, the answer is: No, but we do live in an age of enlightenment. As
>> matters now stand, a good deal more is required for people on the whole to
>> be in the position, or even able to be put into the position, of using
>> their own understanding confidently and well ... "
>>
>> (from I. Kant, AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT)
>>
>>
> An alternative translation of the [complete] excerpt from Kant's essay on
> "Enlightenment" ["Aufklärung"]:
>
> So when it is then asked, "Are we now living in an e n l i g h t e n e
> d age?" the answer is: "No, but we are living in an age of e n l i g h t e
> n m e n t." That people, as matters now stand, would generally speaking
> already be in a position, or would only even be capable of being placed in
> a position, to make use of their own understanding, assuredly and well
> without another's guidance in questions of religion, from that we are still
> a long way off. Only that now the field has been opened for them to work
> freely towards it and the obstacles of universal enlightenment or of the
> escape from their self-induced immaturity are becoming gradually less, of
> that we do have clear indications. In this regard this age is the age of
> enlightenment, or the century of F r i e d r i c h.
> A prince who does not find it unworthy of himself to say that he
> considers it a d u t y in questions of religion to prescribe nothing for
> the people, but to allow them full freedom in such questions, who thus
> himself rejects the proud name of t o l e r a n c e: is himself enlightened
> and deserves to be praised by the grateful world and posterity as the one
> who first renounced, at least from the side of the government, the
> immaturity of the human race, and left every individual free to make use of
> his own reason in everything that is a matter of conscience. . . .
>
> Königsberg in Prussia, 20 September 1784.
> I. K a n t
>
>
> Richard Henninge
> University of Mainz
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--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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