Kant and the Enlightenment

The paper examines Kant's understanding of the Enlightenment. It derives fr om Kant's ideas embodied in his writing A response to the question: What is Enlightenment? The latter was followed by other writings, in which Kant ex amined what he called the ability to think independently as an important ch aracteristic of Enlightenment. In this sense the author pays attention also to an important turn in Kant's thinking, by which he modified his original approach to revolution (before this turn he saw the revolution as a sign o f history verifying his prediction of the historical progress of man). Seve ral remarkable interpretations of Kant's definition of Enlightenment in the writings of J. Mittlestrass, M. Foucault and K. Kosik are mentioned as wel l.