Hilldale Lecture: Defining Enlightenment: Kant, Mendelssohn, Arendt
Liliane Weissberg, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor in Arts and Science emerita and Professor of Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies
Pyle Center Rm 226
What is Enlightenment? In 1783 Berlin monthly Berlinische Monatsschrift asked its readers to submit answers to this question, and both Immanuel Kant and Moses Mendelssohn sent essays to the journal. Their submissions, both published in 1784, offered very different responses. In 1933, shortly after Hitler’s rise to power, Hannah Arendt also reflected on Enlightenment. She would implicitly refer to Kant and Mendelssohn, but considering the situation of German Jews, her answer to the question of what Enlightenment is was different still, as she outlined the hopes as well as failures of the Enlightenment’s promises.
Free and open to the public.
Made possible with funding provided by the Hilldale Lecture Fund
and the Department German, Nordic, and Slavic+.