Developments from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment
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ESSAY TASK:
Briefly outline the developments from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, as given in course notes. Summarise the main points that Kant made in his essay “What is Enlightenment?” How did Hamann criticise Kant? Do you think Hamann’s criticism is fair? Briefly justify your answer.
Reading:
*Notes on the Renaissance and the Enlightenment
*“What is Enlightenment?” by I. Kant
*Criticism of Kant
All these readings have been uploaded to the order.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Developments from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment
The beginning of the Renaissance period dates to the 14th century in Florence Italy as an attempt to return to the ancient world when Rome dominated. Among the greatest developments during this period was the architecture that was artistic and full of architectural wonders predominantly in Rome. The emergence of among the greatest artists that the world has known occurred during this period such as Michel Angelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci (Evans & Marr, 2006). The perception or art during this period changed especially relating to the way the human body was artistically depicted. The human body was pictured as being flattering and in a more positive view and its beauty emphasized compared to the medieval times. Due to the Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures influence, the human body’s nudity was depicted in a positive note in art (Belshek, 2006). This beautiful and noble depiction of the human body led to the development of the humanism movement. Humanists believed that humans were special and at the centre of everything. They believed humans were in charge and responsible for their destiny (West, 2010).
Plato, a celebrated scientist and thinker at the time who was also a humanist believed and emphasized on the power of human reasoning and believed that humans, using their reasoning abilities could unveil critical truths. This is different from the medieval people who emphasized the importance of faith and acquiring knowledge from the Bible (West, 2010). The belief in human reasoning resulted into the scientific revolution during this period. With the emergence of Thomas Aquinas’ book Summa Theologica and the increased confidence of the human abilities people changed their perception about the once infallible ideas of Aristotle. They conducted scientific observations, investigations, and experiments, and experimental methods were developed by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton developed the laws of motion and gravity that are used up to date (Fitzpatrick, 2004).
A strong belief in the human abilities and power of reasoning persisted and grew, and it spread from the scholars to the larger society hence the period of enlightenment. During this period, there was a strong belief that human beings using their reasoning powers could understand the universe, nature, and human nature (Fleischacker, 2013). There was increasing application of science and reasoning (the optimistic idea) that resulted to a better understanding of the universe with the most important development being the compilation of the encyclopedia mostly done by Denis Diderot (Zafirovski, 2010).
Main Points that Kant Made in His Essay
According to Kant, a person becomes enlightened when he/she grows out of an immaturity that is usually self-imposed. Immaturity according to him is the inability of an individual to use his/her understanding without being guided by another person. For Kant, immaturity is self-imposed due to the fear of using one’s understanding without being helped by someone else (Goldman, 2011). Laziness and being cowardly maintain immaturity and due to such qualities other people become guardians or authority figures on certain people. These authority figures warn the subjects of the dangers that exist if they do not seek their help and tell the people below them that achieving maturity is dangerous and difficult hence frighten and deter people from pursuing maturity. He laments that often, people find it difficult to free themselves from immaturity and become content with this state. He argues that rules, regulations, and formulas keep people stuck in the state of immaturity, and a person who attempts to go against the rules would be walking towards maturity as he/she is not accustomed to such free movement (Morgan, 2002).
According to Kant, very few people have managed to come out of the state of immaturity and they have done this through the cultivation of their minds. For him, freedom (to use reason publicly) is the only remedy for enlightenment that is the use of reason by a scholar before the literate world. It is only the public use of freedom that can generate enlightenment since private reason is often restricted to the point where it does not hamper the process of enlightenment (Tampio, 2012). Therefore, freedom is required for enlightenment and people should express their thoughts freely. Through the spread of information and ideas people can become their own guardians as they will possess the components required to be a guardian. By allowing the freedom to think, ideas can be spread that will push others to think for themselves (Tampio, 2012).
Criticism of Kant
According to Hamann by arguing that people should develop freedom of thought Kant was at the same interfering with the freedom of people to think by influencing their thought process. Hamann argues that in some instances people may not want to think for themselves and hence accept the rules and regulation set by the guardians and the authority out of choice (Beech, 2010). Hamann feels that by Kant arguing that people should freely and publicly use their ability to he is limiting the people’s choice to do what they want that is follow rules. Therefore, Kant was objecting the use of the Aristocratic bible and other books as rules for living and thinking. However, he was at the same time setting himself up in the position of this books by interfering with the people’s thought process and restrict them to his idea hence maintenance of immaturity (Goldman, 2011).
Hamann’s criticism is not fair because from Kant’s argument; he did not tell people to follow his thought process, but encouraged them to use their freedom of thinking and their reasoning ability. Therefore, for example, if someone chose to follow the rules that exist, let that person follow them after critically thinking about the rules and not just blindly. Kant encourages people to think before making a choice to do something not restricts people (Beech, 2010)
References
Beech, T. J. (2010). Hamann’s Prophetic Mission: A Genetic Study of Three Late Works Against the Enlightenment. London, United Kingdom: MHRA.
Belshek, J. A. (2006). New Castle University. Retrieved June 29, 2014, from New Castle University Web site: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/ARECLS/vol3_documents/jalalali.pdf
Evans, R. J., & Marr, A. (Eds.). (2006). Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Burlington, VT, United States of America: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Fitzpatrick, M. (Ed.). (2004). Enlightenment World. New York, NY, United States of America: Psychology Press.
Fleischacker, S. (2013). What is Enlightenment? Abingdon, Oxon, United States of America: Routledge.
Goldman, A. (2011). Kant and the Subject of Critique: On the Regulative Role of the Psychological Idea. Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America: Indiana University Press.
Morgan, D. (2002). Kant Trouble: Obscurities of the Enlightened. New York, NY, United States of America: Routledge.
Tampio, N. (2012). Kantian Courage:Advancing the Enlightenment in Contemporary Political Theory: Advancing the Enlightenment in Contemporary Political Theory.United States of America: Fordham Univ Press.
West, D. (2010). Continental Philosophy: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Malden, MA, United States of America: Polity.
Zafirovski, M. (2010). The Enlightenment and Its Effects on Modern Society. Denton, Texas, United States of America: Springer Science & Business Media.
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