Introduction

The Age of Reason or the Enlightenment is that catch-all name given by historians and cultural studies to cover the period extending from the seventeenth century through to the end of the eighteenth century. In 1784 Immanuel Kant wrote a short essay asking the question, ‘What is Enlightenment?’ Kant defined Enlightenment as ‘man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity’. He continued:

Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [Dare to know]. ‘Have courage to use your own understanding!’ – that is the motto of enlightenment.1