Kant in his context: An apology of the enlightenment reason

The intention of the work is to orient Kant?s thought with regard to his contemporaries who thought and wrote in German and operated within the same cultural circle. The critical gesture of Kant?s self-reflexive Enlightenment, to which the first part of the work is dedicated, is considered to be decisive in that context. Subsequently, the criticisms of Kant by Hamann and Herder, and the controversy of Mendelssohn and Jacobi, as well as Kant?s answers and reactions to them, are thematized, respectively. Finally, the influence of Kant on Fichte and early German romanticism is presented. It is found that the latter in an ambivalent way radicalize and lead to paroxysms Kantian Enlightenment, while simultaneously deviating from and opposing it. It is concluded that this dynamic, exposed through the lenses of understanding the reason and critique, could be instructive for our contemporary times as well.