Enlightenment

The date of Immanuel Kant's article titled "What is Enlightenment?" is 1784. The definition of enlightenment in the article is made as the emergence of the individual from the state of immaturity that he has in his own self. The state of immaturity is the individual's inability to use his own power of understanding or learning without the guidance of another. The reason for the existence of the state of immaturity in one's own self is not the lack of understanding, but the lack of the will and courage to understand and learn without the guidance of another.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant

Laziness and cowardice are the reasons for not being able to mature, that is, not being able to use the power of learning throughout a lifetime. Laziness and cowardice are also the reasons for others to develop guardianship over individuals. Thus, order will reach a point where the individual no longer needs to think and make an effort.

Guardians will think that it is dangerous for individuals to move from immaturity to maturity within this system. In other words, individuals who can overcome laziness and cowardice and use their power to learn on their own without anyone's guidance and help will be dangerous for those who establish or have established guardianship.

It is not easy for the individual to get out of the state of immaturity. Because being immature has become comfortable for the individual and even he/she likes this situation. The individual lacks the power to think. Because he/she has never been allowed to make an effort to think. Dogmas and patterns are obstacles that cause the individual to constantly not mature.

In Kant's philosophy, enlightenment occurs by thinking and beginning to learn. However, someone prevents this. Kant's observations on the individual jump to social observations a few paragraphs later.

Kant explains that social enlightenment is more possible than individual enlightenment. Because he states that there will be those who try to think in spite of those who establish tutelage within society. However, he says that social enlightenment will occur in a slow process.

Even if a revolution against despotism and autocracy takes place and destroys the existing despotic order, Kant sees it as impossible for a real reform in thinking to be made through revolution. Because revolution can activate prejudices and it is not possible for a real maturation period to begin.

What is needed for enlightenment, that is, maturity, is freedom, says Kant. He explains that there is always a restriction in society. An officer, a tax collector, a clergyman always give a message to society. They say, "Don't argue, get your education, pay your taxes, believe." But Kant also asks which restrictions prevent enlightenment and which ones are beneficial.

The individual's free use of reason must always be valid. However, it is also mandatory to comply with certain rules within the public order. These rules are complied with without objection. However, the individual cannot be prevented from expressing his/her views and demands regarding these rules in the social sphere by thinking and learning. Public order is not disrupted by the individual's expression of the injustices and inappropriateness of the rules. With these statements, Kant is actually talking about law. In other words, he is talking about the freedom of expression of the thinking person to change the existing rules.

Kant questions whether the age he lives in is an "enlightened" age. He gives the answer that it is not enlightened but an "enlightened" age. Kant explains that there is still a long way to go in creating a society where people can use their ability to think in the religious field, without anyone's help and with self-confidence.

The focus of the article's narratives about enlightenment is religion. Kant sees being immature in religious terms, that is, not being able to use the ability to think, as very dangerous, harmful and humiliating.

With this article, I reveal the most important points of the article in my opinion, but I recommend reading the entire text.

According to Kant, individuals and societies that do not have questioning in their culture and cannot use their ability to think are immature because they do not have the courage to think.

In the very first paragraph of the article, he uses the famous phrase of Horace: "sapere aude". That is, "dare to think". To begin to think is to be free from bondage. For this, one must be free.

Freedom is to think and develop. To think is to object. It is to differentiate, and which country has developed if it has no freedom or limited freedom? The degree of development depends on the degree of freedom.

This article by Kant is one of the important works on the concept of freedom of thought. An unenlightened person, that is, one who does not learn or think, easily falls under guardianship. Or, he finds himself under guardianship before he has even had the chance to use his ability to think. For this reason, Kant particularly emphasizes the subject of religion. Guardians do not want the ability to think to be used. The conservatism of society and its attachment to dogmas serve the interests of guardians.

If there were a more mature humanity, I am sure that only individuals, not societies, would have religion. Genes are inherited from our ancestors, but how does belief remain in society? I can explain it from a sociological and psychological perspective, but I do not understand it from an enlightenment perspective. It must be due to the insufficient maturity of humanity.