Founder of a Metaphysics of Morals 291It allows freedom of thought in religious matters that a free state does not
dare to allow. Its "well-disciplined and numerous army" is "ready to guar¬
antee public peace," and it is because of this threat to the individual free¬
dom of the citizen (civil freedom) that greater freedom of the spirit is pos¬
sible, at least according to Kant:
When nature has unwrapped... the seed for which she cares most tenderly, namely
the propensity and calling to think freely, the latter gradually works back upon the men¬
tality of the people (which thereby gradually becomes capable of freedom in acting) and
eventually even upon the principles of government, which finds it profitable to itself to
treat the human being, who is now more than a machine, in keeping with his dignity.^65
Again, philosophy is assigned the role in state of bringing about what na¬
ture's plan has been all along. Freedom of thought will lead to greater civil
freedom, or so Kant seems to believe. "The hindrances to universal En¬
lightenment ... are gradually becoming fewer." Whatever else one may say
of Frederick, he is "a shining example" of a monarch who shows that it is
not necessary to play the guardian of the people in the arts and sciences.
"No monarch has yet surpassed the one whom we honor."^66 Freedom in
Frederick's Prussia was freedom of thought "chiefly in matters of religion.'"
It did not extend to political freedom, for instance. Kant acknowledges this,
but thinks that this is a significant sign of things to come.^67
What is Enlightenment for Kant? It is, he says, in the first sentence of
the essay, "the human being's emergence from his self-incurred minority."
Put positively, it is the stage of mankind's maturity. Minority is for Kant
the "inability to make use of one's own understanding without direction
from another. It is self-incurred when its cause lies not in a lack of under¬
standing but in a lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction
from another." We should have the courage to think for ourselves. This is
expressed by the motto of the Enlightenment "Sapere audeT or "Dare to
be wise!"^68
It is just "laziness and cowardice" that stand in the way of the Enlight¬
enment now. While it may be difficult for any individual to extricate himself
from tutelage, a public has a greater chance. The only thing that is required
is freedom, and indeed only the "least harmful" freedom one can imagine,
namely "the freedom to make public use of one's reason in all matters."^69
By public use of reason, he means the use of reason by a scholar or writer
"before the entire public of the world of readers." It is ultimately nothing
but the freedom of the press. Kant, somewhat curiously from today's per¬
spective, is ready to concede that private use of reason, that is, the use of