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Back to Subjects - Philosophy

enlightenment

enlightenment Do we at present live in enlightened age? What is enlightenment? Immanuel Kant attempts to clarify the meaning of enlightenment while composing the essay, “What is Enlightenment?”. The goal of Kant’s essay was to discuss what the nature of enlightenment was. It also taught one how enlightenment can be brought about in the general public. Kant explains that, “enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred immaturity”. Immaturity is man’s incompetence to have direction for oneself. In other words, enlightenment is the progress of a society through the free activity of rational thought and scholarly critique. Kant feels that if we are going to liberate ourselves from immaturity then we must be able to use our freedom whenever we want. One can try to revolt but it’s most definitely going to fail. One can try to over-throw and then become the tutor himself or herself. This revolution will not lead to enlightenment, but rather lead to ongoing immaturity. According to Kant, there are two types of reasoning: public and private. If one can produce an argument and present it to the public with the intentions of making progress, they are using public use of reasoning. Kant uses many examples of the difference between the public and private use of reasoning. If soldiers refused to follow commands then there would be no military. So, one solider may follow commands in which he disagrees with, but will later critique what he believes. This means that he will follow the commands as his private use of reasoning and then will speak out his complaints as his public use of reasoning. In his essay Kant clearly explains the difference between and enlightened age and an age of enlightenment. In an enlightened age we would all be religious without clergymen because we would know to which things we should be obedient or disobedient. In this age there would be elimination of self-incurred immaturity. During the age of enlightenment we are making the progress towards using both kinds of reasoning. Incompetence is not using pubic and private use of reason in balance with one another. Competence is the balance of both public and private use of reason. We must know how to determine when it is right to obey and right to argue. In terms of government obedience it is often necessary, but any effort to hinder the public’s free use of reason should be forbidden. In Kant’s essay “What is Enlightenment?,” he shows the transition for the age of enlightenment to the enlightened age. It enables the people to become more like the guardian and managers of their own freedom. Do we at present live in enlightened age? No, Man still doesn’t know to which things he should be obedient or disobedient to and he still immature. Kant explained that enlightenment could only be achieved when there existed "freedom for man to make public use of his reason in all matters." All the events that are occurring in the world at the present time prove that we are far from being in enlightened age. It is, I think, fair to suggest that history has not borne out Kant's predictions. Two centuries of bloodshed do not give us many grounds for optimism about the likelihood of peace prevailing. Moreover, I find it difficult to entertain seriously a philosophy of history which could presumably provide us with retrospective reassurance that the Holocaust, Hiroshima, Vietnam, Gulf wars, and the countless other horrors of the modern era were all constructive episodes in humankind's development. Kant was a man of the Enlightenment, and as such was a firm believer in progress: "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity." Two centuries on, the Enlightenment belief in progress seems to have been misplaced completely. Nevertheless, there have been some very good examples of practicing Kant’s theory. America’s constitution has many of Kant’s ideas such as freedom of speech where any attempt to oppress a man’s right to argue is forbidden. Every citizen is the guardian of his/her own freedom. We are not living in enlightened age but there is some progress toward that. The old puritanical moral standards, which held us in check, have been discarded. Now we are free to express ourselves in more creative ways. Bibliography:

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