According to Immanuel Kant, Enlightenment was mans release from self-incurred tutelage.

Enlightenment was the process by which the public could rid themselves of intellectual bondage
after centuries of slumbering. After providing a careful analysis of the causes why tutelage
occurred, he proposes the requirements for Enlightenment. He wants the public to think freely,
act judiciously and be treated in accordance with their dignity (Internet Modern History
Sourcebook)

Immanuel Kant devoted his whole life to the pursuit of absolute truth. According to Kant,
Enlightenment represents a personal growth out of his self-imposed immaturity. Defining
immaturity as one's inability to use his own understanding without the guidance of another, Kant
states that laziness and cowardice cause people to gladly remain immature for life. Because of
these qualities others may easily establish themselves as the guardians or authorities on certain
subjects. It is often very difficult for people to emerge from immaturity. They tend to remain
content in a state of immaturity where rules bind them to it. Only a few people have succeeded
in emerging from immaturity. Kant states that such people have done so by cultivating their
minds. He argues that the only thing required for Enlightenment is freedom, namely the freedom
to publicly use reason. This public use of reason alone can bring about Enlightenment among
people. Thus, freedom is essential for Enlightenment. People must be able to express their
thoughts. On the other hand, general public fears to use their reason because they are not willing
to venture into uncharted waters. They are afraid to have a few falls in the process of learning
how to walk. Another reason, he argues, is the minority who put themselves on top by depriving
the general public of knowledge and education. Thus, the so-called elites complemented the
cowardice and fear of the general public by suppressing them. By allowing freedom of thought,
people would spread ideas which would urge others to think for themselves.

The final reason Kant gives for tutelage is complacency and blind obedience. The people were
smug in their shackles of centuries old serfdom. Like domestic cattle they obeyed without
bothering to challenge norm or person to alleviate their suffering, he argued. After discussing the
reasons why tutelage occurred, Kant presents the requirements for Enlightenment. The foremost
requirement is freedom. He believes that freedom to express oneself honestly is paramount for
Enlightenment. This way Kant actually promotes freedom of speech and the tolerance of diverse
viewpoints. But he also warns that the expression of ones opinions must not prevent him from
discharging his duties to the public. Kants another point is that the leaders must be enlightened
first for the public to be enlightened. He makes a bold statement about monarchism when he
says his law giving authority rests on his uniting the general public will in his own. He strongly
expresses the need for a government that does not intimidate its citizens, but rather encourages
them. While it is true that monarchies abused their authority by depriving the people of
education and forcing obedience, Kant blames the general public for tutelage. Kant reiterates
that Enlightenment is the escape of men from self-their incurred tutelage. It is upon a society to
break away from the intellectual chains of the dark ages.

As a sociologist, Karl Marx is regarded to be a "great heir of Enlightenment using and developing
the key concepts of the eighteen century thinkers. One of the key concepts of Enlightenment was
the theory of social development and progress. It became clear that modernity was just another
stage of development. Marx inherited from the Enlightenment the linear and deterministic
perspective on development of societies, building his theory on the idea of progress. He wrote
about successive stages of development of societies: primitive society, feudalism, capitalism
(bourgeois formation), socialism and communism. He abandoned the concept of reason as the
leading force of progress. The Enlightenment's attachment to the notion of progressive
development of societies lead to the ideas of future utopia. For Marx, the end stage of human
history communism, represented the most desired and final phase of human development. But
contrary to the Enlightenment philosophers, the utopia was not to be obtained through evolution
and development of reason, but through revolution of the working class. The idea of revolution
was not present before the experience of the French revolution, so the Enlightenment had
prepared the ground for the revolt in France. Having sought emancipation in proletariat, Marx
indeed was a child of the Enlightenment. He took from the tradition in different ways, further
developing his own ideas. Nowadays we have to be sure that eighteen century tradition does not
exhaust Marx' thought but merely enriches and embeds it in the historical context.