Post Number One, March 17

In your own words, how would you characterize the Enlightenment Period? What were the dominant theories of subjectivity or selfhood during this era?

The Enlightenment Period was a period in which the self emerged as a focus of philosophical discussion. The self of the Enlightenment Period was a free self that was formed at birth, and which tried to express itself despite society's attempts to constrain and define it. Philosophers such as Rousseau and Kant explored the subject. Rousseau wrote about the uniqueness of the concept of "I" and the value of exploring it, while Kant took a more distanced and theoretical approach, proposing that all interactions with the world must go through the filter of "I."

These ideas are at odds with more modern philosophical and psychoanalytical views of the self, which state that the self is constructed by society, as opposed to being a pure thing that is struggling against society. However, the view of the self as pure and pre-formed still persists today, especially in popular thought.