At the turn of the 18th Century, the world was moving away from a devotion to religious ethics toward a belief in moral, secular responsibility and reasoning. Kant explains this new period of Enlightenment as "man's release from his self-incurred tutelage" (D 105), and Diderot and D'Alembert describe the enlightened person as one who "dares to think for himself...trampling on prejudice, tradition, conventional wisdom, authority, in a word, all that enslaves most minds" (D 101).

Using these texts, come up with your own definition of Enlightenment as demonstrated by these authors. What is it, and why do you think the shift toward Enlightenment and secular reasoning was a difficult one for the religious readers of the 18th century?


Video search if needed: Kant & Categorical Imperatives: Crash Course Philosophy #35 or the book by: 4th edition of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, books D, E, F, by Martin Puchner.