Emanual Kant was a social theorist during the Enlightenment era which was characterized as a period highlighting the importance of reason in intellectual thought. From this basis, Kant began his framework of society during his time.

Kant outlines two forms of knowledge, noumena and phenomena.  Noumena is a natural reality that exists external to humans and which is essentially ultimate reality.  Phenomena are what we perceive.  According to Kant, humans are only capable of seeing phenomena, which are always filtered through A priori categories.  A Priori categories are those that are at the basis of all human existance and cannot be escaped no matter how objective one thinks they are being. Kant reveals the limits of empiricist epistemology by criticizing humans’ tendency to base behavioral laws on noumena.  He argues that in doing so, we are premising our behavior on what we can never know for sure.  Instead, behavioral laws must be based on phenomena, i.e. reality as we perceive it.  The task of humans is to exercise reason when interpreting these phenomena.  If humans utilize their agency and use their ability to reason rather than depend on others, progress towards Enlightenment will occur.  Agency is crucial because it is only the knower that can choose when to begin exercising his/her reason to interpret phenomena. 

Kant also outlines idea of a society as an immature being. An individual is immature when he/she listens the the voices of others without applying thier own notions of reason. He says that "laziness and cowardice" are the reasons why so many people "remain in lifelong immaturity". 

(I have to run, but I will be back TONIGHT to do more on Kant)