Enlightenment Now!

Functionalism is the key to contemporary computer-anthropology. But the humanist tradition of the last two and a half centuries has never rigorously challenged the functionalist mindset of modernity. If we face this challenge in the light of contemporary philosophy of technology and related discussions on the digital transformation, Immanuel Kant's prototypical account of human cognition, along with his confusion of the relationship between intellect and reason, and his conceptualization of freedom as autonomy prove untenable. This failure does not affect the core of his enlightenment project: his Socratic distinction between maturity and immaturity and his refocusing of the Platonic enlightenment of antiquity on the epochal difference between today and yesterday. However, it may well turn out that pre-modern thinkers like Plato had a more acute awareness of the challenges we face today. The first part of this essay will discuss the Platonic and Kantian concept of maturity and its implications for the education of the young. The last sections will deal in more detail with critical objections against Kant's 'Copernican turn' and finally focus on the breaking point at which his functionalist subject-object dichotomy collapses: the phenomenon of cinematic time.