What is Enlightenment Today?

Abstract

This paper examines the meaning of Enlightenment in the contemporary “post-truth” era. Starting with examples of mass credulity and misinformation, it argues that contemporary obscurantism differs from that faced by eighteenth-century thinkers because it is generated not by a lack of information but by an overabundance of information combined with echo chambers and the rejection of scientific authority. The paper revisits Immanuel Kant’s classic conception of Enlightenment as the individual’s emergence from self-incurred immaturity through the courageous use of one’s own understanding. It then considers Marina Garcés’ proposal, strongly influenced by Kant, of a “new radical Enlightenment.” While acknowledging the relevance of Kantian critical reason for a new Enlightenment, the paper argues that Kant’s framework is insufficient to address the structural conditions that undermine public discourse today. In particular, growing economic inequality and the influence of wealth over public debate distort democratic deliberation and weaken the corrective power of rational argument. The paper concludes that a contemporary Enlightenment must move beyond Kantian reliance on free public reasoning by confronting the material inequalities that undermine democratic legitimacy and by reimagining political strategies to restore trust, equality, and democratic participation.