Kant's Criticism Of The Enlightenment

We are taught in schools that figures such as Descartes, Francis Bacon, John Locke, and many others are a part of this elite group that are credited with being the most “intellectual men” ever to have lived. The European period of Enlightenment is credited with being one of history’s most important events, and it is well known for the various contributions it has made to contemporary Western civilization. It must be said though, that not everyone considered this period of time to be as great as it’s made out to be, and one notable critic of the Enlightenment was known as Immanuel Kant. Immanuel Kant’s belief consisted of the idea that the immersion of the intellectual movement was really representative of humanity’s laziness, and that this laziness imposed a “self-incurred immaturity”. Kant believes that in order for people to be truly enlightened, they need to recognize the precious freedom that they possess, and do their best to encourage others to express themselves as freely as possible. From Kant’s point of view, the people living in France at the time were equivalent to plain old sheep. From what he saw, people would blindly follow rules set forth by others, and …show more content…
While people may think that their newfound revolutionary ideas advance their society, from Kants’ perspective, these ideas only further increase elitist rule over their lives. By having other people do their work for them, they only become even more immature. Kant encourages people to use free speech as a tool in the fight against the “1%” of the time, and he believes that the most elite group of people purposely disallow the general population to further educate themselves. Kant knows that if people use their speech to protest, they will be allowed to educate themselves and then truly become