The “Weakness” of Reason in the Age of Enlightenment

Abstract

The Enlightenment has been generally represented by historians of philosophy (E. Cassirer, P. Hazard, etc.) as the era in which human reason, revolting against the fetters of tradition and authority, daringly imposed its rule on all fields of knowledge, opening up to “scientific” research subjects previously obscured by “prejudice”, and optimistically trying to penetrate by intellectual means all the secrets of nature, both spiritual and material. In the direction of an indefinite “progress”. The Kantian motto “Sapere aude” thus became the symbol of that age.