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Enlightenment to Kant

In German the subject was called Weltweisheit, world-wisdom, a word that in the dictionary’s account had long meant earthly wisdom, gained by human effort, “im ausdrücklichen gegensatz zur weisheit gottes”, in express contrast to the wisdom of God (Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch). Christian Wolff, who with Thomasius made it current, defined it in German as “eine wissenschafft aller möglichen dinge, wie und warumb sie möglich sind”, a science of all possible things, how and why they are possible (his German Logic, as the dictionary cites it), and in Latin as “Philosophia est scientia possibilium, quatenus esse possunt”, “the science of the possibles insofar as they can be” (Preliminary Discourse on Philosophy in General, 1728, §29, tr. Blackwell). Johann Christoph Gottsched, in his Erste Gründe der gesammten Weltweisheit, gave it a different end: “Die Weltweisheit nenne ich die Wissenschaft von der Glückseligkeit des Menschen; in so weit wir sie, nach dem Maaße unsrer Unvollkommenheit, erlangen und ausüben können. Sie ist also nichts anders, als eine unvollkommene Weisheit”, I call world-wisdom the science of human happiness, so far as we can attain and practise it within the measure of our imperfection; it is therefore nothing but an imperfect wisdom (Introduction §3).

In France the Encyclopédie made philosophy one of its three branches. D’Alembert divided knowledge by the mind’s three ways of working, “la mémoire, la raison proprement dite, & l’imagination”, into “l’Histoire, qui se rapporte à la mémoire ; la Philosophie, qui est le fruit de la raison ; & les Beaux-arts, que l’imagination fait naître”, history, which belongs to memory, philosophy, the fruit of reason, and the fine arts, born of imagination, and owed the scheme “principalement au Chancelier Bacon” (Preliminary Discourse, 1751). The article “Philosophie” adopted Wolff’s definition, “la science des possibles en tant que possibles”, and held that “toutes les sciences, tous les arts ont-ils leur philosophie”, every science and every art has its philosophy. The article “Philosophe” made the philosopher a figure in society: “La raison est à l’égard du philosophe, ce que la grace est à l’égard du chretien”, reason is to the philosopher what grace is to the Christian; “Notre philosophe ne se croit pas en exil dans ce monde”, our philosopher does not think himself in exile in this world; “La société civile est, pour ainsi dire, une divinité pour lui sur la terre”, civil society is, so to speak, a divinity for him on earth; “Le philosophe est donc un honnête homme qui agit en tout par raison”, the philosopher is a decent man who acts in everything by reason.

Hume opened his Enquiry concerning Human Understanding on “moral philosophy, or the science of human nature”, and had Nature give the rule: “let your science be human, and such as may have a direct reference to action and society … Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man” (§1). The work was hard: “We must submit to this fatigue, in order to live at ease ever after: And must cultivate true metaphysics with some care, in order to destroy the false and adulterate”, by “mental geography, or delineation of the distinct parts and powers of the mind”. And “ONE considerable advantage, that arises from philosophy, consists in the sovereign antidote, which it affords to superstition and false religion” (“Of Suicide”).

Kant distinguished two concepts of philosophy. Up to this point, he wrote, philosophy is “nur ein Schulbegriff”, only a scholastic concept, a system of knowledge sought as a science. “Es giebt aber noch einen Weltbegriff (conceptus cosmicus)”, but there is also a world concept, the one that concerns “was jedermann nothwendig interessirt”, what necessarily interests everyone: “In dieser Absicht ist Philosophie die Wissenschaft von der Beziehung aller Erkenntniß auf die wesentlichen Zwecke der menschlichen Vernunft (teleologia rationis humanae), und der Philosoph ist nicht ein Vernunftkünstler, sondern der Gesetzgeber der menschlichen Vernunft”, in this sense philosophy is the science of the relation of all knowledge to the essential ends of human reason, and the philosopher is not an artist of reason but the lawgiver of human reason (Critique of Pure Reason, AA III 542–543). Its two objects are “Natur und Freiheit”, nature and freedom. “The whole interest of reason, speculative as well as practical, is centred in the three following questions: 1. WHAT CAN I KNOW? 2. WHAT OUGHT I TO DO? 3. WHAT MAY I HOPE?” (AA III 522, tr. Meiklejohn); the Logic edited from his lectures by Jäsche adds “Was ist der Mensch?”, what is man?, and says that “Im Grunde könnte man aber alles dieses zur Anthropologie rechnen”, at bottom all of this could be counted as anthropology (AA IX 25). The essay “What is Enlightenment?” (1784) gives the motto: “Aufklärung ist der Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner selbst verschuldeten Unmündigkeit … sapere aude! habe Muth dich deines eigenen Verstandes zu bedienen!”, enlightenment is the human being’s way out of a self-incurred immaturity; dare to know, have the courage to use your own understanding (AA VIII 35).

Philosophy, for Kant, cannot be taken over ready-made: “Man kann nur philosophiren lernen”, one can only learn to philosophise (AA III 542), for philosophy “läßt sich aber nur durch Übung und selbsteigenen Gebrauch der Vernunft lernen”, can be learned only by practice and one’s own use of reason (Logic, AA IX 25). Metaphysics was to try “to do just what COPERNICUS did”, and assume “that the objects must conform to our cognition” (Preface to the second edition, tr. Meiklejohn).

In The Conflict of the Faculties (1798) Kant gave philosophy its place in the university. It is the lower faculty, the one that deals with teachings “welche nicht auf den Befehl eines Oberen zur Richtschnur angenommen werden”, not adopted as a rule on a superior’s command, and it stands “nur unter der Gesetzgebung der Vernunft, nicht der der Regierung”, only under the legislation of reason, not of the government (AA VII 27). It is called lower because “der, welcher befehlen kann, ob er gleich ein demüthiger Diener eines andern ist, sich doch vornehmer dünkt als ein anderer, der zwar frei ist, aber niemandem zu befehlen hat”, the one who can command, though he is the humble servant of another, thinks himself grander than one who is free but has no one to command (VII 20). To theology’s old claim he gave his answer: “Auch kann man allenfalls der theologischen Facultät den stolzen Anspruch, daß die philosophische ihre Magd sei, einräumen (wobei doch noch immer die Frage bleibt: ob diese ihrer gnädigen Frau die Fackel vorträgt oder die Schleppe nachträgt)”, one may grant the theology faculty its proud claim that the philosophy faculty is its maid, though the question still remains whether she carries the torch before her gracious lady or the train behind (VII 28). Philosophy takes in “alle Theile des menschlichen Wissens”, all parts of human knowledge, and makes the teachings of the upper faculties “zum Gegenstande ihrer Prüfung und Kritik”, the object of its examination and critique.

Kant also sorted the philosophy before him, at the close of the Critique, in “Die Geschichte der reinen Vernunft”. By the origin of knowledge, “Aristoteles kann als das Haupt der Empiristen, Plato aber der Noologisten angesehen werden”, Aristotle can be taken as the head of the empiricists, Plato of the noologists, and Locke and Leibniz had not been able to settle the dispute; by method, the scientific way was either dogmatic, “den berühmten Wolff”, the famous Wolff, or sceptical, “David Hume”. He ended: “Der kritische Weg ist allein noch offen”, the critical path alone is still open (AA III 550–552).