The Age Of Enlightenment, By Immanuel Kant

True maturity of a man does not occur from natural aging, but through making self-decisions, derived from their own understandings. Those understandings occur when free movement is released. However, it involves with uncertainties and doubts one must go through. There are times when people try to step over these uncertainties through bravery, but only few are successful at breaking the chains of fixed philosophies. Immanuel Kant’s question ‘What is Enlightenment?’ proposes the answer by evaluating the true meaning hidden underneath captivity and freedom, and connects it to human maturity. Kant was successful in foreshadowing that human advancement will be immensely affected by the age of enlightenment, evidenced by the eighteenth to twenty-first

“Thus a public can only attain enlightenment slowly. Perhaps a revolution can overthrow autocratic despotism and profiteering or power-grabbing oppression, but it can never truly reform a manner of thinking; instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones they replace, will serve as a leash for the great unthinking mass” (36). Kant prophesied that enlightenment will cause waves in bourgeoisie class, and it was possible through revolutions and changes that the world went over. One great example of this transformation could be shown from the changes of political view in France, when revolution was sparked by the fierce passions of Frenchmen and issued statement of rights, demanding equality and freedom, among others. King Louis XVI played an important role in this revolution, where he governed France through monarchy. His rich in palace of Versailles was seen as tyranny, and his credibility worsened as the people of French starved from scarcity. “the kernel gradually reacts on a people’s mentality, and it finally even influences the principles of government, which finds that it can profit by treating men, who are now more than machines, in accord with their dignity” (42). As Kant’s prediction, the First French Republic was formed aimed for a better government and the desire for equality. They proclaimed a revolt in the near future, and from the success of their revolution through the execution of King Louis, the system was brought to an end of the thousand years traditional French monarchy. The bourgeoisie governed France hereafter, promoting freedom and equality by an attempt to reform France by Enlightenment. Because the French revolution introduced freedom through democratic ideas, Kant’s predictions of political transformation edified his prediction of the immense social changes during the