Immanuel Kant: The Process Of Enlightenment

Immanuel Kant, What Is Enlightenment Essay
Spencer Martin
World Civ. II
4/10/17

According to Immanuel Kant, Enlightenment was said to be man’s release from “self-incurred tutelage” (Soman 1). It is a process by which man or the public could be rid of themselves of intelligent captivity after centuries of unawaken slumbering. Also, Kant just wanted the people to think freely for their own selves, and along with that as a requirement “to act judiciously and be treated in accordance to their dignity” (Soman 1). The process of Enlightenment was really to just get the world to think freely for ourselves and to understand that not everything is by the book or that we must believe and follow everything we see and hear. Tutelage from

Both of these saying are important to the entire concept of the enlightenment because it is almost possible, however, for the public to enlighten themselves. To think that if it is only freedom given, then maybe enlightenment is inevitable due to their always being a few independent thinkers out there. So once these men have not yet reached the maturity, they are not able to spread the spirit of a reasonable appreciation of his own value and his duty to be able to think freely for himself is Kant’s best message brought out of these mottos. With that being said it would take a long time for the public to achieve enlightenment, it was a slow process, but a revolution that could help bring to an end the despotism of the way everyone thought. The enlightenment being talked about requires nothing but freedom and that is and innocent word to use. To be able to use the word “freedom” to make a public using of one’s own reason in all that matters. Looking at this in a different angle from Kant himself he quotes “Now I hear the cry from all sides: "Do not argue!" The officer says: "Do not argue--drill!" The tax collector: "Do not argue--pay!" The pastor: "Do not argue--believe!" Only one ruler in the world says: "Argue as much as you please, but obey!" (Smith 5). This is so accurate to a point because as a society we all find restriction on freedom

Enlightenment is another theory on its own that the Church was preaching something that was not true or should not be listened to. Yet, in reality it was a thought that maybe there were other answers out there that man needed to know and find by themselves. This era of history has affected religion, culture, and politics. Philosophers started to propose ideas about how things on earth and in space came to existence, which came into contact with Spiritualism. Thinking on your own behalf and not listening to the religions and sources that have been around since the beginning is a choice that not everyone makes. Most of world was opposed by the thought of enlightenment and how anyone could question religion. But there are free thinkers out there and that’s what this new era was about, and it was not for everyone but it did bring about some ideas used today. For example, enlightenment despots such as Frederick the Great, had unified, help rationalize, and modernize Prussia who had been through multiple years of war against Austria. Also enlightened men like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence helped frame the American Revolution. The Enlightenment vision was to throw out the old authority to be able to rebuild society on “a chaos of clear ideas.”