Pols 2006
Social Theories of Modernity
Week 2, Insert 1 – The Enlightenment
, Kant’s essay and the 18th Century
• As you will see in today’s insert, contributors to the The
Enlightenment are drawn from across the 18th century, and the 18t
Century is often associated with ‘The Age of Enlightenment’. Kant w
part of the last generation of Enlightenment thinkers and his essay
written close to the end of the century (1784).
• In the reading I prescribed last week, Kant answers the question
‘What is Enlightenment?’ from “inside” the 18th Century
Enlightenment. But how do historians and thinkers understand the
Enlightenment when they look back on it from the present?
Social Theories of Modernity
Week 2, Insert 1 – The Enlightenment
, Kant’s essay and the 18th Century
• As you will see in today’s insert, contributors to the The
Enlightenment are drawn from across the 18th century, and the 18t
Century is often associated with ‘The Age of Enlightenment’. Kant w
part of the last generation of Enlightenment thinkers and his essay
written close to the end of the century (1784).
• In the reading I prescribed last week, Kant answers the question
‘What is Enlightenment?’ from “inside” the 18th Century
Enlightenment. But how do historians and thinkers understand the
Enlightenment when they look back on it from the present?
