Kant’s “What is Enlightenment?” (pp. 101-109)

Kant’s public use of reason means the use that a person makes if his or her reason while addressing the public and private of reason happens when the person carries out a task which relates to certain vocation (In Lever, 2012). As such, the private use of reason is vocational while public use of reason is extra-vocational.  The public use of reason has no restrictions, where a person is able to freely speak their mind especially as a scholar. The private use of reason means that there are restrictions and a person is supposed to some guidelines, where they cannot put across their opinion or disagree with an establishment they work for (In Lever, 2012).

This is different from how the terms public and private are used today; public in the present involves a position or entities that are created by the state ad their agency; private involves positions or entities that are owned by individuals with not outside control.

References

Lever, A. (2012). New frontiers in the philosophy of intellectual property. 235-237