Kant and the Modernity of the Absent Public

Abstract

In his famous passages in Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant, the so-called father of modern liberalism, outlines the three maxims of how a society moves toward Enlightenment: one, think for oneself; two, think in the mindset of others; and three, think consistently. The longer one considers these propositions, the stranger they sound. For example, if we take maxim two seriously, we could become so busy connecting with others—and, of course, they with us—that there is little room for that special someone, who presumably would get most of our empathetic energy. Friends, lovers, spouses and even relatives have no particular place in Kant’s world. Hegel stated it perhaps all too bluntly; marriage for Kant “is degraded to a bargain for mutual use.”