Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 2, 2024

Kant’s “Autonomous Enlightenment” and the Interactive Mechanism of Modern Society

(Abstract)

You Xilin

Modern enlightenment is no longer one-way indoctrination by elites in a hierarchical community, but the autonomous enlightenment of social agents. This transformation originated with Kant, whose autonomous enlightenment provides the principles behind and complete pathway of practice toward the transformation of modern social interaction from an active to an autonomous type. The individual’s rational reflection on the current situation is synchronous with the development of the free personality’s assumption of social responsibility, and autonomous enlightenment is completed by social interaction through rational communication. Communication has become a hub for the transformation of production methods in the information age, thus turning enlightenment into an inherent mechanism for the modern evolution of production methods and ways of life.