Enlightenment And Kant

German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was the most influential thinker of the Enlightenment era and one of the greatest Western philosophers of all times. According to Kant, the Enlightenment can be defined as, “A person's emergence from his self-sustained dependency.” ( What is Enlightenment? ). Kant believed that in order to break away from dependency, one must be able to think for himself. However, the only way to fully exercise freedom was to act morally. In the “Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals”, Kant explains that acting with good will is acting with duty to others, which then highlights the question, “How should we treat others?” He answers this question through his moral law called the categorical imperative. The categorical