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Kant's Enlightenment Thought And The Impact Of The Modernization Process In Germany

Posted on:2002-08-18Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:J GaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:2205360032951926Subject:Western philosophy
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The Enlightenment was thought to reveal the prologue of modern society. During two hundred years, the principle of modernity was always connected with the modification and developing of the thought of Enlightenment. As a founder of the classical German philosophy, Kant has also encountered the Enlightenment that was the theme of the era. He developed the theory of Enlightenment with his philosophy that based on rationality of human. Kant has accepted the motivation of the Enlightenment as same as the other philosophers since Descartes: the critique of authority and injustice, the emphasis on the education for the young. He emphasized also the freedom in public society. Kant抯 ambition, I claim, is to formulate the project of Enlightenment: that is, to develop a metaphysics and ethics of autonomy. The two metaphysical doctrines from Newton, namely pre-established harmony and occasionalism, were accepted by Kant抯 thought of Enlightenment. Otherwise, he was also inspired by Rousseau抯 reflections on human nature and freedom. Since the movement of Enlightenment, the deeply emphasis on rationality has caused the situation that the law of necessity is against freedom, but the emphasis on nature has led to the moral nihilism. In order to solve this contradiction, Kant wanted to find out a new foundation of the Enlightenment to assure the connection of necessity and freedom in the experienced life of human. Kant抯 answers to this problem include three arrangements. First, revealing the falsity of the law of identity in the old metaphysical system. Second, replacing the false identity with a true identity of rationality. Third, assuring the reality of the identity of necessity and freedom in the world of experience. And then founded Kant a dualism to realize the freedom by limiting necessity. In Kant抯 theory, freedom was thought as an access to necessity. We can agree a view about Kant抯 project of enlightenment: that is, his project belongs to a view of ontology. This means that Kant still wanted to find out the essence that was concealed under phenomenon. Kant demonstrated the project of Enlightenment carefully. But when he enlightened Gottheit with rationality, a problem occurred: who can enlighten rationality? Many philosophers have asked the same question. But Foucault gave a good explain for Kant. He took the project of Enlightenment as a method to beyond any limits in theory or reality. So the thought of Kant will give power to every time. The Enlightenment was not only a period of changing intellectual and social values, but also a time when men were beginning to experience a new mode of feeling. As the most famous philosopher of describing the principle of Enlightenment, Kant directly influenced the modernizing history of Germany. Civil society was formed in the era in which Kant had lived. Traditional representative public sphere was replaced with bourgeois public sphere. The appearance of papers, journals, academies and presses gave Kant a precious opportunity to transmit his project of Enlightenment and influence the people, especially the intellectuals, of Germany. The spread of the thought of Enlightenment benefited Germany and therefore it gained the most important assurance for development: the quality of human.
Keywords/Search Tags:Enlightenment
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