Kant and the Enlightenment: "What is Enlightenment?"

Philosophy professor Ellie Anderson explains key ideas associated with the Enlightenment, and discusses Immanuel Kant's essay "What is Enlightenment?" Dare to know!
This video was created for Professor Anderson's Spring 2021 "Continental Thought" course at Pomona College.
For more from Ellie, check out Overthink podcast!
Overthinkpodcast.com

Пікірлер: 82

  • @GordonGarvey
    @GordonGarvey Жыл бұрын

    So many philosophy channels I've seen in the past do power point slides or animations. I think this in person method is so much more engaging, and you've a good way of communicating with your face and body language that any other way would really be a waste.

  • @adrieltrott7482
    @adrieltrott74822 жыл бұрын

    I taught medieval and so had students read Galileo toward the end of the course last Spring, and I was struck that contra our common assumptions about Galileo as the observer, his invention isn't so much that we can observe things better with the telescope, but rather that we need mathematics to explain what we observe. So Galileo is already saying we both need to observe and do mathematics, and kind of mocks the Peripatetics for thinking they can just observe the world, as if our observations don't already assume frameworks that enables us to make sense of our observations. Galileo: Kant before Kant.

  • @OverthinkPodcastPhilosophy

    @OverthinkPodcastPhilosophy

    2 жыл бұрын

    Amazing! I think that fits well with the idea here that Galileo emphasizes not observation with the naked eye, but observation that is mediated technologically and requires observation (albeit perhaps he is closer to Newton than usually given credit for being, given the mathematics focus you point out)

  • @adaptercrash

    @adaptercrash

    Жыл бұрын

    Reversing it, no wait we wont reverse it and go over here and keep doing it, are you still doing this?

  • @mariovicente
    @mariovicente Жыл бұрын

    Kant was actually my main "father figure" growing up, both in a psychological and intellectual sense. Its hard to overstate that. A rock upon which we can see that despite all the craziness and bad stuff everywhere, there is logic to the universe and therefore to living as a human being.

  • @jeffzenick4795
    @jeffzenick4795 Жыл бұрын

    After listening to aroud 2-3 dozen of Your videos, I wrote down something that seems significant to myself - Self-incurred ignorance or immaturity is caused by a lack of determination or courage, rather than a lack of intelligence.....I appreciate you sharing something that I've never been able to put in words.

  • @Cuisinenomade1
    @Cuisinenomade1 Жыл бұрын

    May be the rulers have good intentions but what they don't have is the best "interest" for everyone at heart.

  • @GoldenBeachParty
    @GoldenBeachParty3 ай бұрын

    Dear Ellie, Your discourse is really brilliant in clarity, and encourages me build on it. As enlightenment begins in the stars, where the explosive nature of matter, energy and gravity began everything, as fission ignited in the sun and planets were formed. And that explosive nature repeated as DNA spiraled into multitudes of cellular organisms, and in multiple orgasms, and then again flashes of brillance within the neuro fibers of the human mind, where discoveries in nature (such as sparking rocks) gave man epithanies of creative technology. The telescope and microscope becoming sources of enlightened comprehension of reality.

  • @mirarrix
    @mirarrix2 жыл бұрын

    Your channel brings me so much joy.

  • @OverthinkPodcastPhilosophy

    @OverthinkPodcastPhilosophy

    2 жыл бұрын

    We love to hear it! Hope you'll enjoy our podcast as well :) overthinkpodcast.com

  • @mkweae44
    @mkweae448 ай бұрын

    I absolutely love your intensity! Thank you.

  • @szelan
    @szelan Жыл бұрын

    I found it quite fascinating how you described Kant's identification of, shall we say, “catalytic individuals,” in the pursuit of social progress....it is a bit scary to think that this could lead to a type of authoritarianism, and yet I also have in mind an interpretation of Kant’s phrase “Aufklärung ist der Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner selbstverschuldeten Unmündigkeit,” which to me suggests a sort of compassion for our “self-incurred voicelessness.” if we are indeed bereft of expression, how can it be that our position is “self-incurred?” the same question might be asked, is asked all the time often in not very kind ways, of people trapped in all manner of self-harming dialectics. as you seem to suggest-and i would agree, assuming i understand you correctly -- the solution seems to be to support individual development, and also to seek a social transformation of the conditions of this “Unmündigkeit,” however it is understood.

  • @berniv7375
    @berniv7375 Жыл бұрын

    That was brilliant. Thank you for the video.🌱

  • @gamedaysam
    @gamedaysam Жыл бұрын

    I'm a philosophy major in my 2nd yr & i wonder how & why it took me so long to find you but i guess better late than never. Great video

  • @tiramisuvodka8353
    @tiramisuvodka8353 Жыл бұрын

    More Kant pleaseee!!

  • @frankrockefeller3038
    @frankrockefeller3038 Жыл бұрын

    The Enlightenment was a detachment from religion. Reason is a coupling of detachment and interest. Our interest was reflected in the profound changes of the industrial revolution.

  • @Hanzala8956
    @Hanzala89566 ай бұрын

    Thank you so much for your explanation. It's so easy to grasp it

  • @matthewbisso8852
    @matthewbisso8852 Жыл бұрын

    Interesting video, Professor Anderson. Thanks for posting!

  • @albertsonntag754
    @albertsonntag754 Жыл бұрын

    Thanks!

  • @julesjgreig
    @julesjgreig2 жыл бұрын

    Love your work thank you

  • @wonderfacts7782
    @wonderfacts7782 Жыл бұрын

    amazing! But don't really understand how Kant put forward the empiricism and rationalism together by his understanding. could you please suggest something or tell a bit about it. thanks for the wonderful video.

  • @s60049
    @s600499 ай бұрын

    thank you! getting ready for my university exam, it was so helpful!

  • @vishpenmetsa6211
    @vishpenmetsa6211 Жыл бұрын

    Prince Siddharth or Gautam Buddha left his palace at the age of 29 in search of truth led a renunciants(?) life and had enlightenment at the age of 35. Ms Anderson seems to be a professor of philiosophy at the of 28 - showing the success of the western societies and perhaps some way of showing what to learn from the west.

  • @Cuisinenomade1
    @Cuisinenomade1 Жыл бұрын

    The idea that man can learn from observation alone is half true since the observation must accompanied by experimentation, that is that the observer experiences as well as observe. By observation alone no man can fully learn, yet this lack of experimentation can be observed and experienced in the wold around us where there are thousands just observing and then repeating as a computer would do, and lacking the experimentation part of Knowledge. Thus a population that believes that just by observing or reading or hearing alone they can attain Knowledge. This makes up for a very simplistic and shallow population of men.

  • @catsaresocute650
    @catsaresocute650 Жыл бұрын

    I love how she sais this is less academic, but it's probably requiring more knowlege of understanding how this argumentation works then the longer format she unsed for work on affection and auto affection.

  • @Dr-Sardonicus
    @Dr-Sardonicus2 жыл бұрын

    Great content. Subscribed.

  • @clarascenters-zapico5817
    @clarascenters-zapico5817 Жыл бұрын

    Amazing lecture!

  • @ibtisammuniraalmas4887
    @ibtisammuniraalmas48872 жыл бұрын

    Thanks you! this helped a lot

  • @journeyintothelight7118
    @journeyintothelight71182 жыл бұрын

    Part of the "enlightenment" is about discovery of our endowed A Priori. I consider the so-called "a priori" a set of "expert-rule" (A.I. term) that are already exist in our minds but we are not aware of them until we start to discover. This "a priori" acts like a set of colored lenses which influences our perception of the world. Part of these "expert rules" are individualized, and part of them are collective.

  • @dilbyjones
    @dilbyjones Жыл бұрын

    Great lecture on maturity

  • @nafeesahmad2973
    @nafeesahmad29732 жыл бұрын

    Would request you to provide bullet points here in the description, a kind of summary of the facts you are explaining here. It will help me and maybe others to use the facts or major arguments in our writing and teaching

  • @starlingmendez186

    @starlingmendez186

    Жыл бұрын

    Watch the video again and take notes??

  • @yasserwaleedyasserwaleed5578
    @yasserwaleedyasserwaleed55782 жыл бұрын

    Thanks

  • @robertmontgomery6256
    @robertmontgomery6256 Жыл бұрын

    Very clear presentation by just talking and using simple graphics. Somewhat like Mr. Rogers did. 😊

  • @BacashMeditation
    @BacashMeditation8 ай бұрын

    You’re good Real good (Warriors movie) First time I’ve heard a clear explanation of the epistemology of the “in itself “ vs “the appearance “

  • @garliclasagna
    @garliclasagna Жыл бұрын

    I refute the claim that humans are becoming more free and intelligent... I think we have become more subservient to corporate greed, it has left us no choice but to scavenge for crumbs...

  • @kaldie5983

    @kaldie5983

    2 ай бұрын

    well we are becoming more free an intelligent thats the case of evolution of our nervous system which is how we understand the environment, but capitalist tradition is now poisoning a vast majority of us

  • @vishpenmetsa6211
    @vishpenmetsa6211 Жыл бұрын

    Nice lecture for audience like me highlithing the meaning of enlightenment in western context as opposed to buddha and enlightenment. Anyway I hope youtube sees the need for taking notes with different videos as personal comments/observations not really going to public comments

  • @EdgarGiovanniRodriguez
    @EdgarGiovanniRodriguez Жыл бұрын

    Love it!

  • @christopherkerr6307
    @christopherkerr6307 Жыл бұрын

    Wish you were one of my professors!

  • @nasrinvahidi5515
    @nasrinvahidi5515 Жыл бұрын

    It’s so sad that we’re very much Kantian and our school books are still based on his teaching. It’s time to move forward already. Thank you for this video. Excellent job!!!

  • @speedlett

    @speedlett

    Жыл бұрын

    The Enlightenment was good, actually

  • @Fuyoualliamjacpac
    @Fuyoualliamjacpac2 жыл бұрын

    Nice summary

  • @chrispriest7167
    @chrispriest7167 Жыл бұрын

    It would have been nice to mention Comte and his idea of Positivism in this video. He also thinks that you can only know what you can observe just like Kant. Then again, Comte and Kant have very similar sounding names, so it might have just made the video more confusing...

  • @jonnhkost3834
    @jonnhkost3834 Жыл бұрын

    Brilliant, i’m french but i understood every single word and it’s very interesting 🥳

  • @Rico-Suave_
    @Rico-Suave_8 ай бұрын

    Great video, thank you, Watched all of it 9:13

  • @kluge1245
    @kluge12452 жыл бұрын

    Pg 136? Is that in reference to some course material specific to this college course. Kants essay is only 5 pages long.

  • @OverthinkPodcastPhilosophy

    @OverthinkPodcastPhilosophy

    2 жыл бұрын

    Hi there! Yes, this is referring to the version assigned in class, from the Basic Writings of Kant, ed. Allen W. Wood (Modern Library, 2001).

  • @bebopbountyhead
    @bebopbountyhead Жыл бұрын

    Eyo Kant! What's "progress," and how do you justify it?

  • @user-dz1cu8cy7l
    @user-dz1cu8cy7l Жыл бұрын

    谢谢,传递

  • @scasey1960
    @scasey1960 Жыл бұрын

    Again, the third lecture is the third to last video of the playlist .

  • @shahbaksh2915
    @shahbaksh2915 Жыл бұрын

    Was that light bulb animation supposed to wake up your students during the lecture or something? Because I think it just ruptured my left ear drum xD

  • @goback3spaces
    @goback3spaces Жыл бұрын

    I Kant deal with this

  • @billgalen9014
    @billgalen9014 Жыл бұрын

    So where does reason come from? Does it suffer from incompleteness?

  • @idicula1979
    @idicula1979 Жыл бұрын

    Very true, at some point there comes a time for every man and woman to take responsibility of their own future, and make their place in the world. Is there a god, or not, what is the worth of a life it is for us to decide we rise and fall of our own reason. So make them a house built on solid foundation so that they withstand harshest of worldly storms.

  • @scasey1960
    @scasey1960 Жыл бұрын

    Again, the second lecture is the second to last video in this playlist. Go, figure.

  • @srikantasarangi7241
    @srikantasarangi72412 жыл бұрын

    PDF pleas Madam

  • @nabazabdullatif6955

    @nabazabdullatif6955

    2 жыл бұрын

    Hi, well done for this brief explanation of Kant, but you did not mentioned the Kantian motto for enlightment era... As you know (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own mind or your understanding," is the first step to defining the other and depend on this gaze to start the colonialism age. Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large part of mankind gladly remain minors all their lives... The results was completely negative for the western society and surely for east societies in particular. Many thanks

  • @sahir7700
    @sahir7700 Жыл бұрын

    Mam how can I reach you?

  • @zahidkalam2147
    @zahidkalam21472 жыл бұрын

    I would like to follow you, i hope this chennal will be beneficial for me to increase my knowledge. Good luck dear... I would like to know about your major??

  • @rustynails68
    @rustynails68 Жыл бұрын

    Awesome!! I am preparing to give a talk at my alma mater. I want to touch on the enlightenment. I feel that the professors, even with tenure, don’t have the liberty to speak the truth. However, as a guest, I have all of the liberty in the world (universe). I have heard, and been exposed to examples where students have become intolerant of opposing opinions. The universities are supporting these views. Freedoms are vanishing. Dark ages are ahead. We desperately need to restore the university experience. Our students are graduating with the same tiny universe that the had when they started. For that, they should try to get their money back.

  • @priyamastibhati
    @priyamastibhati7 ай бұрын

    Why is Kant silent on Shankara who seems to be godfather of the modern “enlightenment” and “freedom” Body of Knowledge?

  • @jamalnasir3099
    @jamalnasir3099 Жыл бұрын

    Could you at some point do a video on Orientalism? Your example of the can of drink was a good illustration of how European Orietalists observed people in the East and recorded it all (and according to Edward Said called it 'knowledge'). This is a serious topic because some Orientalists assisted Colonialism with their work based on their perception without any deep understanding of the values of each society they examined (which is definitely not anything cool or undepressing contrary to what you described Kant believed). I do not necessarily assume that you defend that point about perception.

  • @LeopardKing-im4bm
    @LeopardKing-im4bm11 ай бұрын

    Reason produces the same ethical impact as a hand held calculator. Factual cogency does count for something, but it contains zero virtue. The ancients lead us astray on that point.

  • @BlantonDelbert
    @BlantonDelbert Жыл бұрын

    I would put Mathematics with Empiricism not Rationalism. In other words, I see Newton as an Empiricist not a Rationalist.

  • @arcanuslosanara2823
    @arcanuslosanara2823 Жыл бұрын

    Oddly if you burnt a witch at the stake, it was called enlightenment, but if the witch had created gold out of stone, it was deemed science.

  • @Cuisinenomade1
    @Cuisinenomade1 Жыл бұрын

    Although Reason can be seen as God.

  • @thomasjaggers3576
    @thomasjaggers3576 Жыл бұрын

    Copernicus

  • @evad7933
    @evad7933 Жыл бұрын

    You must worry that do do not properly capture the thoughts of philosophers you deal with. This interpretation of Kant appears to be rather generous of humanity. I seriously doubt that there is much a priori-type reasoning employed in the average human life. Lots of primitive induction only ... the sort of thing lower animals do. Btw, if object A (the Earth, say) rotates around object B (the sun, say) then object B rotates about object A. It is a mutual relationship between the two.

  • @kshitijbali5569
    @kshitijbali5569 Жыл бұрын

    I believe you are limiting yourself by staying with Kant. And you are limiting the definition of enlightenment by thinking it means critical thought. Critical thought isn't enlightenment, its just questioning, its not understanding. And Kant's presumption that a few people have the "ability" to achieve enlightenment is rather reaching. All people have the ability to understand, the universal system around us has a way of teaching and pointing out our faults, and eventually everyone grasps the truth in their own vocabulary.

  • @OverthinkPodcastPhilosophy

    @OverthinkPodcastPhilosophy

    Жыл бұрын

    the video...is a video about Kant's essay "What is Enlightenment"

  • @bobcabot
    @bobcabot Жыл бұрын

    i take that back! sorry! ( im "moody" - do you know?

  • @iMusicShuffle
    @iMusicShuffle Жыл бұрын

    So I wonder what the means if you are the type of person who thinks about what other people think all the time. May never be a free person

  • @albertsonntag754
    @albertsonntag754 Жыл бұрын

    Thanks!

  • @mr.finley3588
    @mr.finley3588 Жыл бұрын

    Thanks