ENSAYO 1 How Did Kant Define Enlightenment FINAL

7/29/2019 ENSAYO 1 How Did Kant Define Enlightenment FINAL

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Ilustración en Kant y Rousseau

ENSAYO

Uno de los rasgos fundamentales en la filosofía de Kant es su carácter

epistémológico, una respuesta a la pregunta de cómo el hombre conoceel mundo antes que la búsqueda de las cosas en sí. En la filosofía

kantiana, la cosa en sí, el mundo nouménico, queda desterrado de las

categorías espaciotemporales que brinda la mente humana, por lo que

solo nos es posible conocer el mundo de la experiencia sensible que será

el objeto de las ciencias en el mundo moderno y es en ellas donde será

patente y visible la idea de progreso , producto de la revolución del

pensamiento en el siglo XVIII. Esta revolución del pensamiento es lo que

conocemos como ilustración, un proyecto de transformación del mundo

a través de la razón.

Para Kant, “Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred

immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding

without the guidance of another”, en otras palabras, el hombre solo sale

de esa inmadurez, de la oscuridad y la ignorancia, a través del uso libre

y autónomo de el entendimiento. Entendemos por entendimiento en la

filosofía de Kant una disposición natural hacia el conocimiento, hacia la

comprensión del mundo, de donde se desprende que todo crimen contra

la libertad de pensamiento, todo afán de obstaculizar el pensamiento es

un crimen contra la naturaleza.

Esta facultad del entendimiento que en Kant resulta ser una disposición

natural del hombre tiene una valoración muy distinta en los escritos de

Rousseau. Podemos afirmar que en Rousseau, tal disposición al

conocimiento es más bien una violación de la naturaleza humana, una

caida en desgracia del hombre primitivo y virtuoso previo a la

constitución de las grandes civilizaciones, a la construcción de grandes

monumentos, a los modales refinados de las cortes europeas. Tenemos

así una valoración de la razón como disposición natural del hombre

contra una que la critica como el germen de los superficial, de lo vano,

del mundo de las apariencias y que se refleja en estas palabras:

Peoples, know once and for all that nature wished to protect

you from knowledge, just as a mother snatches away a

dangerous weapon from the hands of her child, that all the

secrets which she keeps hidden from you are so many evils she



is defending you against, and that the difficulty you experience

in educating yourselves is not the least of her benefits. Men are

perverse; they would be even worse if they had the misfortune

of being born knowledgeable.

En algunas líneas de “El discurso sobre las artes” Rousseau se muestradesdeñoso con uno de los principales vehículos de la ilustración: la

imprenta:

Considering the dreadful disorders which printing has already

caused in Europe and judging the future by the progress which

evil makes day by day, we can readily predict that sovereigns

will not delay in taking as many pains to ban this terrible art

from their states as they took to introduce it there.

La imprenta fue un invento del siglo XV que contribuyó en buena medidaa la democratización del conocimiento, a la difusión del pensamiento

ilustrado. Rosseau no considera útil la difusión del conocimiento que

debe estar reservado para unos cuantos seres privilegiados:

Bacon, Descartes, Newton — these tutors of the human race

had no need of tutors themselves, and what guides could have

led them to those places where their vast genius carried them?

Ordinary teachers could only have limited their understanding

by confining it to their own narrow capabilities.

En contraste, podemos ver en Kant una valoración positiva en la

difusión del conocimiento, se trata del uso público de la razón en donde

el hombre se hace libre al difundir su propio pensamiento a una

comunidad de lectores y estos a su vez se ven estimulados a ejercer su

libertad de la misma forma. Este uso público de la razón es un acto de

generosidad con los demás, mientras que un uso privado del

conocimiento es un acto egoísta, este último fue el que predominó en

Europa durante siglos sumiéndola en el oscurantismo y la privación de la

libertad de expresión. Recordemos que el pensamiento deKant, de quien

se sabe nunca abandonó alguna vez su natal Königsberg, nunca habríatenido lugar sin el acto generoso de la difusión del conocimiento a través

de los libros.

ESSAY

One of the fundamental features of Kant's philosophy is its

epistemological character, his theory is an answer to the question of



‘how the man know the world’ rather than finding the things themselves.

In Kantian philosophy, the thing itself, the noumenal world, is banished

from the space-time categories provided by the human mind, so we can

only know the world of sensitive experience that will be the subject of

science in the modern world. It’s in science where it will be patent and

visible the idea of progress as a result of the revolution of thought in the

eighteenth century. This revolution of thought is what is known as

Enlightment, a project to transform the world through reason.

For Kant, "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-Incurred

immaturity. Immaturity is the Inability to use one's own understanding

without the guidance of another ", in other words, the man only get out

of that immaturity, of darkness and ignorance, through the free and

independent use of the understanding. We understand by

‘understanding’ in Kant’s philosophy, a natural disposition to knowledge,

to understanding the world, from which it follows that any crime against

freedom of thought, every desire to hinder the thought is a crime

against nature.

This faculty of understanding, which in Kant proves to be a natural

disposition of man, has a very different assessment in the writings of

Rousseau. We can say that in Rousseau, such disposition to knowledge

is rather a violation of human nature, a fall from grace, a decline from a

virtuous primitive humanity to a world of great civilizations, large

monuments and refined manners in the European courts. Thus we havea valuation of reason as man's natural disposition in Kant against

Rousseau critics to reason as the germ of superficiality, of the futility, of

the world of appearances and that is reflected in these words:

“Peoples, know eleven o'clock and for all that nature Wished to

protect you from knowledge, just as a mother snatches away a

dangerous weapon from the hands of her child, That all the

secrets she keeps hidden from Which you are so many evils

she is defending you against, and That the difficulty you

experience in educating yourselves is not the Least of herbenefits. Men are perverse; They would be even worse if they

experienced the misfortune of being born knowledgeable.”

In some lines of "The discourse on the arts" Rousseau shows disdainful

towards one of the main vehicles for illustration, printing:



“Considering the dreadful disorders've Already Which Caused

printing in Europe and judging the future by the evil Which

makes progress day by day, we can predict Readily sovereigns

That will not delay in taking as many pains to ban this awful art

from Their Peak Gust states took to introduce it there.”

The printing press was invented in the fifteenth century which

contributed largely to the democratization of knowledge and therefore

the dissemination of Enlightenment thought. Rosseau don’t consider

useful knowledge dissemination, which should be reserved for a few

privileged people:

Bacon, Descartes, Newton - These tutors of the human race

had no need of tutors Themselves, and what guides Could have

led them to Those places where Their vast genius Carried

them? Ordinary teachers Could Only Have Their limitedunderstanding by confining it to Their Own narrow capabilities.

In contrast, we see in Kant a positive assessment on the spread of

knowledge, it is the public use of reason where man is free to spread his

own thinking to a community of readers and these, in turn, are

stimulated to exercise their freedom in the same way. This public use of

reason is an act of generosity to others, while private use of knowledge

is a selfish act, the latter was the one that prevailed in Europe for

centuries throwing it into the darkness and deprivation of freedom of

expression. Recall that Kant’s major contribution to human tought ,never have taken place without the generous act of disseminating

knowledge through books, this because he never left his home town

Königsberg.

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ENSAYO 1 How Did Kant Define Enlightenment FINAL