Aufgeklärte Vernunft - Gestern und Heute

The Enlightenment can be considered, following Habermas’ definition of Modernity, an unaccomplished project. However, the historical forms of the Enlightenment are quite different and offer several point of view for a discussion on its contemporary relevance. The essay moves from the assumption that the Kantian conception of the nature and the tasks of the enlightened thinking is closely connected with a general model of reason, which can provide a solid basis for an analysis of how this project could be redesigned and developed. The first part highlights the particular form in which teleological rationality is involved in Kant’s attempt to outline a general reorganisation of human culture, by means of which he aims to put limits to the prevalence of a technical view of rationality. The second part shows the consequences of this conception of rationality for Kant’s view of the religion as a characterising feature of Enlightenment thinking and discusses, in regard to Kant’s and to Habermas’ view of he relationships between religious experience and “public” reason, the form of an adequate understanding of this issue. Moving from the idea that a critical demarcation between public reason and religious experience which goes beyond Kant’s conception should be further developed, the third part of the paper shows some motive in Kant’s thinking which could be used in this direction.