When Immanuel Kant posed his celebrated question, “Was ist Aufklärung?” in 1784, little could he have supposed that he’d inaugurate an inquiry that has yet to end and is unlikely to end soon. Appropriately, Kant’s was a philosopher’s question, not that of a historian, a question that sought answers in general principles, not particular realities. A historian would more likely have asked “Was ist die Aufklärung?” with that concrete, definite article inserted into Kant’s interrogative.

Source: Thinking Anew | The Weekly Standard