Steps toward maturity as entering a relationship with coercion: Institutional and social aspects of Kant's “What is Enlightenment?”

Abstract

 This paper examines Immanuel Kant's concept of ‘Enlightenment,’ a staple of modern pedagogy, not from the definition at the beginning of Kant's essay “What is Enlightenment?” (1784), but from the latter part of this essay and the concept of ‘coercion’ in various related essays. At the beginning of the essay, Kant defines Enlightenment as ‘man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.’ Based on this definition, Kantian Enlightenment, which aims at the state of not being subordinated to the guidance of others, has been understood as a release from coercion, using a dichotomy peculiar to modern educational theory, namely the opposition between coercion in the form of institutions, forms and educational guidance and individual thinking, autonomy and Enlightenment. However, in the latter part of the essay, which thematizes the hitherto overlooked relationship between Enlightenment and ‘institutions,’ Kant does not portray Enlightenment as a concept opposed to coercion. Rather, he depicts Enlightenment as ‘steps toward maturity’, as ‘entering a relationship’ with coercion. This paper, therefore, interprets Kantian Enlightenment from the whole of “What is Enlightenment?,” with critical reference to the works of Wolfgang Bartuschat, Reinhard Brandt and Takuya Saito, who focus on the latter part of Kant's Enlightenment essay, and Andreas Dörpinghaus, who focuses on the historical and social aspects of Kantian Enlightenment. The paper thus highlights the relationship between coercion and Kantian Enlightenment, which cannot be fully captured by the traditional dichotomy. It also thereby examines one way of ‘Bildung’ beyond the oppositions of coercion and freedom, leading and letting grow, inherent in modern educational theory.

 To this end, this paper first reviews prior pedagogical research on the concept of Kantian Enlightenment, which has so far focused on the definition of Enlightenment in the opening sentence of “What is Enlightenment?.” The paper then confirms the risk that this emphasis on the beginning of the essay overlooks the institutional dimension of Kantian Enlightenment. After that, it clarifies how ‘coercion’ can be interpreted in this institutional perspective from Kant's writings. In particular, the paper focuses on the latter part of “What is Enlightenment,” as well as “On the common saying: That may be correct in theory, but it is of no use in practice” (1793), in which Kant discusses the relationship between Enlightenment and institutions. This will suggest the interpretation of ‘steps toward maturity’ as a process that aims to ‘be with coercion,’ in other words, a process of entering a conscious and critical relationship with the coercion which is imposed on the self with an open attitude toward others. Finally, the paper examines whether the Kantian Enlightenment described above can serve as a critical mirror toward constructing an educational theory that goes beyond the traditional educational conflicts, precisely at a time when a ‘new Enlightenment’ is being sought.