What Enlightenment Was, What It Still Might Be, and Why Kant May Have Been Right After All

In: American behavioral scientist: ABS, Volume 49, Issue 5, p. 647-663

Abstract

Debates about "the end(s) of Enlightenment" tend to confuse the Enlightenment (the historical period) with enlightenment (an activity whose nature and ends were the subject of much debate during the 18th century). This article explores the history of discussions of "enlightenment" and "the Enlightenment," paying particular attention to the uncertainties the 18th century had about just what the former implied and the different ways in which the 19th and 20th centuries understood the latter.