An Analysis of What is Enlightenment
“Enlightenment” is a state of understanding that generations of people are
looking for. Through accumulated knowledge and critical thinking, people can seek
the truth without any subjective obstruction. However, back in the eighteenth
century, the staunchly religious era, the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant
had already proposed the article “What is Enlightenment”. In his essay, Kant explored
the meaning and the obstacles of enlightenment. Additionally, he differentiated
citizen and scholar and examined whether his society is enlightened.
From the opening of “What is Enlightenment”, Kant had directly pointed out the
definition of the enlightenment is to emerge from self-imposed nonage. He soon
added the main point to move toward enlightenment is to have the courage to use
own understanding. Nevertheless, Kant recognized that the process of enlightenment
was not simple when laziness and cowardice appeared to be the two main
hindrances. Kant pointed out that people appeared to be lazy when sometimes
they’re getting used to the minor role and certain formulas easily. Also, as Kent
believed, people tend to be overwhelmed by the potential failures but not
recognized that the failures were the inevitable process to accomplish.
Furthermore, Kant discerned two different occasions when freedom is given
from the powerful tutelage such as government. Kant distinguished people who
simply committed obedience as “citizen”. On the other hand, he noted that “scholar”
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An Analysis of What is Enlightenment
is the part of people who argued by using rational evidence without any violation.
Moreover, Kant stressed that people, including citizen and scholar, should work on
creating the artificial unanimity in order to meet public goals.
Last but not least, Kant identified his era as the age of enlightenment rather
than enlightened age. He stated that some people were reasoning without external
guidance, and the hindrance that limited the process of enlightenment was slowly
reducing. Despite the ages of the article, I can still find some of Kant’s standpoints
are valid and applicable in nowadays. For instance, Kant’s ideas on laziness and
cowardice are quiet pertinent in the modern society. Whereas such ideas awkwardly
matched people, especially my parents’ generation, views toward my generation.
They often called us “The Strawberry Generation”, indicating that since my
generation lived peacefully throughout our life, we lack of strong mental qualities to
deal with potential stress and unknowing obstacles.
In the article of “What is Enlightenment”, Kant had explicitly addressed the
definition of enlightenment, which is getting away from self-imposed nonage. Kant
had not only cautioned the attitudes of laziness and cowardice but also analyzed the
difference between citizen and scholar. He also applied his era to examine whether
his society met the condition of enlightenment. Although the article was published
more than a century, some of its idea can still enlightened modern human being.
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An Analysis of What is Enlightenment
References
1. Kant, Immanuel. What is Enlightenment? . Trans. Mary C. Smith. Cambridge
Edition of the Collected Works of Immanuel Kant: Practical Philosophy.
Columbia University, n.d. Web. 13 December, 2015.
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html
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