Kant's 'What is Enlightenment?'
1784 · Work
Answering a magazine's question, Kant gives the era its definition and its motto: enlightenment is 'man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity', and its demand is sapere aude — dare to know, think for yourself. Written under a king who tolerated argument so long as citizens obeyed, the essay is both the movement's manifesto and its epitaph, published five years before the Revolution tested it.
On these timelines: The Enlightenment, Arts and Thoughts, Master, Germany
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Around 1784
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- American Declaration of Independence (1776)
- Greek War of Independence (1821)
- American Revolution (1775)
- French Revolution (1789)
- Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (Choral) (1824)
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