The “Weakness” of Reason in the Age of Enlightenment

Abstract

The Enlightenment has been generally represented by historians of philosophy (E. Cassirer, P. Hazard, etc.) as the era in which human reason, revolting against the fetters of tradition and authority, daringly imposed its rule on all fields of knowledge, opening up to “scientific” research subjects previously obscured by “prejudice”, and optimistically trying to penetrate by intellectual means all the secrets of nature, both spiritual and material. In the direction of an indefinite “progress”. The Kantian motto “Sapere aude” thus became the symbol of that age.

This paper is based on more than ten years of research on the subject. I have already published provisory results on some sections of this field in the following studies: “La question des bornes de l’entendement humain au XVIIIe siècle et la genèse du criticisme kantien, particulièrement par rapport au problème de l’infini”, Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale (1959); “Critiques of the Notion of Substance Prior to Kant”, Tijschrift voor Philosophie, XXIII (1961); “Die Anfänge von Kants Kritik der Kausalbeziehungen und ihre Boraussetzungen im 18. Jahrhundert”, Kant-Studien, LBII (1966); “Hypothesis (1600–1770)”, Historisches Würterbuch der Philosophie (Basel-Stuttgart, forthcoming).