Voltaire On Enlightenment

Enlightenment, according to Kant, is a progressive process makes people to get rid of the self-imposed immaturity. The character of immaturity is the “lack of resolve and courage to use their own understating without guidance from others”. Kant believes two things that can make people immaturity are: laziness and cowardice. They make majorities in the society don’t event to try to become maturity. To Kant, freedom plays an important role to save people from immaturity. The freedom means to use one’s reasons in public freely, especially “ leave everyone free to use his own reason in all matters of conscience”. Both government and religion shouldn’t try to block people from getting maturity or enlightened by using rules and formulas. To Voltaire,

Barbarian who are not enlightened always forget the existence of Nature Law, because they do harm to others for their own advantage motived by power”. Voltaire believes nature law or scientific law not religion plays the most important role to enlighten people because he believes religion sometimes can make people to become superstition. However, Voltaire thinks to tolerate religion is necessary because religion not always make people to falls into superstition and it can benefit people because “ the law take care of known crime; religion watches secret crime”. In other words, Voltaire believes enlightened people should allow people or things that differs with them or their idea to exist not only inside a country but also in the universe which means to be toleration. Rousseau believes the most important character of Enlightenment are equality and conscience. Rousseau believes God created everything include people, their body their souls. From this perspective, everyone should be equal due to every one is a part of human being which created by God

“ Man actually finds himself a faculty which distinguish him form all other things, even form himself as affected by objects, and that is reason”. Everybody is born with reasons, reason motives them to take their duty but according to Kant, if people take their duties based on their reason, then people follows the moral law or reason. If people take their duty not based on their reason, then people are not follow the moral reason. Kant believes the real freedom is not do whatever an individual want to do but he need to thinking “ the general conformity of the will’s action to law in general. Only this conformity to law is to serve the will principle”, which means “ I could want my maxim also become general will”. When people doing things based on the moral law which generated by reason, then the person has the greatest freedom. If people doing things are not based on the moral law which generated by human reason then the individual is not as free as the individual doing things according to moral law because the individual will service for his wants. Although freedom to Enlightenment is very important, the more important thing is how to make people enjoy the freedom that works for most people or general will which means people should yield to the general will when they have different thinking from the