Read and Respond to (IMMANUEL KANT) What is Enlightenment - Research Paper Example

Kant describes enlightenment as “Man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity” (Kant 1784), where immaturity essentially refers to an individual’s inability to use their own understanding in actions and instead depend on tutelage or guidance from others. Kant explains that this immaturity is self-imposed due to “lack of resolve to use it without guidance from another” (1784). He argues that the guardians who are depended upon by the unenlightened are keen to ensure that matters remain this way hence discourage their dependants through indicating that lack of their guidance will lead to danger.

The guardians have been quite successful at discouraging maturity and enlightenment of the populace that only a few individuals have been able to become enlightened “by cultivating their own minds, in freeing themselves from immaturity and pursuing a secure course” (1784). However, Kant argues that enlightenment is inevitable and that the world heads toward it with each age. He identifies two forms of freedom of using one’s reason as determinants of enlightenment whether public and private.

Only public reasoning can succeed in bringing about enlightenment although holders of office and other individuals can privately reason and still publicly defend the symbols they represent. Kant uses the rest of his work to showcase that nothing can stand in the way of enlightenment, not religion, authority or even society itself. He also argues that we are not living in an enlightened age but rather in the age of enlightenment which translates to the gateway to enlightenment. A central theme in Kant’s work is that rational autonomy is achievable in the society albeit slowly; “But that the public should enlighten itself is more likely; indeed, if it is only allowed freedom, enlightenment is almost inevitable” (1784).

He presents the view that enlightenment of the entire society is