The topicality of a question

what is enlightenment?

Abstract

Individual autonomy, freedom as self-determination, less power, whatever they may be, religious, moral, corporate, legal, political, etc.: these are the great promises of Modernity. Enlightened freedom is freedom by reason that is oriented towards the general and the public, as opposed to reason that responds to the particular and the private. For multiple reasons, it is worth taking stock, asking ourselves where the modern utopia of autonomy, freedom and emancipation has led us, even more so, why today this clarification has become something more than a mere question. Have we, in fact, reached adulthood? After more than two centuries of the triumph of Enlightenment ideas, can we say that we are in a society of enlightened reason? Have our societies, supported by the maxims of the Enlightenment, reached a stage of progress? If it is possible to say that there has been an improvement in legal terms, can we say the same in moral terms? These and other questions are what these paper aims to discuss from the famous text An answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment, by Immanuel Kant.