I. Kant, ‘What is Enlightenment?’ [6 pp] [TPR]
Enlightenment = man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity
- Immaturity = the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another
- Self-incurred
o it its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to use it
without the guidance of another
Sapere aude!
o have courage to use your own understanding!
Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large proportion of men, even when nature has
long emancipated them from alien guidance
naturaliter malorennes
It is difficult for each separate individual to work his way out of the immaturity which has become
almost second nature to him
There is more chance of an entire public enlightening itself
For enlightenment of this kind, all that is needed is freedom
Now in some affairs which affect the interests of the commonwealth, we require a certain
mechanism whereby some members of the commonwealth must behave purely passively, so that
they may, by an artificial common agreement, be employed by the government for public ends
or at least deterred from vitiating them
If it is now asked whether we at present live in an enlightened age, the answer is
no, but we do live in an age of enlightenment
Matters of religion are presented as the focal point of enlightenment/of man’s emergence from his
self-incurred immaturity
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Enlightenment = man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity
- Immaturity = the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another
- Self-incurred
o it its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to use it
without the guidance of another
Sapere aude!
o have courage to use your own understanding!
Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large proportion of men, even when nature has
long emancipated them from alien guidance
naturaliter malorennes
It is difficult for each separate individual to work his way out of the immaturity which has become
almost second nature to him
There is more chance of an entire public enlightening itself
For enlightenment of this kind, all that is needed is freedom
Now in some affairs which affect the interests of the commonwealth, we require a certain
mechanism whereby some members of the commonwealth must behave purely passively, so that
they may, by an artificial common agreement, be employed by the government for public ends
or at least deterred from vitiating them
If it is now asked whether we at present live in an enlightened age, the answer is
no, but we do live in an age of enlightenment
Matters of religion are presented as the focal point of enlightenment/of man’s emergence from his
self-incurred immaturity
16
