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Sapere Aude

The document discusses Immanuel Kant's 1784 work 'What is Enlightenment' which defined enlightenment as a person's ability to think independently without guidance from others. Kant argued that while humans have the ability to overcome ignorance, we do not fully live in an enlightened age.

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Salome Tvildiani
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22 views2 pages

Sapere Aude

The document discusses Immanuel Kant's 1784 work 'What is Enlightenment' which defined enlightenment as a person's ability to think independently without guidance from others. Kant argued that while humans have the ability to overcome ignorance, we do not fully live in an enlightened age.

Uploaded by

Salome Tvildiani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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In 1781, "Critique of Pure Reason" was created, it can be said that it changed the thinking

and language of thinkers about man as well as about perception of God and the world. The
author of this work is Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a person who is considered the most
prominent person in modern philosophy. A German philosopher whose influence on modern
thought at that time and now is very difficult to describe, as it can be said that he is a giant in
this field. A very strange boy in person, distinguished himself by new inventions and
discoveries. The development of the philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries can be
attributed to the development of his Copernican idea.

A paper by a German Protestant pastor was published in one of the German magazines,
which aimed to understand what the Enlightenment was. In 1784, in response to this article,
Immanuel Kant created a small work "What is Enlightenment". In this small work, he says
that enlightenment is the ability when a person can judge himself without the help of others,
when a person comes out of immaturity. Kant says that immaturity is the fault of people
themselves because people judge themselves with the help of others, Kant used the term
sapere aude! Its definition can be "Dare to use your own judgment!" It is this term that is used
as the main slogan of Enlightenment. Humans have been under the influence of immaturity
for a long time, the main argument for this is that people love to follow a leader, which
means that someone smarter or smarter than us can lead an immature person. Being in
immaturity in itself means that a person does not have his freedom. He lives with someone
else's thinking, which limits the definition of freedom. But the most important thing is that
people can get out of this immaturity, which can be said is not so reasonable, but the main
thing is that it is really possible. It's difficult because people don't really like to break out of
their routines, regardless of whether the situation is bad or not. According to Kant, a person
can get out of immaturity only if a person achieves success based on his own mind. However,
for this, of course, "taking firm steps" is necessary.

Kant also makes a very interesting definition of freedom in this work. He says "freedom of
the public use of one's own judgment in all matters". The public use of reason is the ability
and opportunity by which people can come out of immaturity and live in freedom. Because
the public use of the mind is an opportunity to share one's wisdom with others, and to use
one's education and experience only to share these skills with others. As for private
consumption, we can say that it can be defined by the fact that at this time the scope of
human capabilities is defined when "for some things that are carried out in the interest of
public unity".
Considering all the above, I will say that it is very interesting and at the same time very
difficult to talk about whether people are living in the age of enlightenment or not? Or have
we ever lived in an age of enlightenment? In the final part of his work, Kant says "Are we
now living in an enlightened age?" The answer is: No, but we live in an age of
enlightenment”. The answer is that we don't really live in an age of enlightenment, although
humans have the ability to learn how to get out of ignorance, and we have the ability to
learn how to judge ourselves without being guided by other people.

Bibliography

 Peter Strawson , The Bounds of Sense: An Essay on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (Routledge
Classics, 2018
 Sebastian Gardner ,Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason
(Routledge Philosophy GuideBooks) , 1999.
 http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html

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