Oh dearest enlightenment, we meet for the umpteenth time. I can sum up this whole epoch with just one quote: “Have the courage to use your own reason- that is the motto of enlightenment”. Wasn’t that short and simple, yet straight to the point? Definitely. Kant’s goal was merely to encourage individuals to begin thinking for themselves. Apparently, prior to the enlightenment era, there was a laziness epidemic that crippled the minds of many. People weren’t considered wise because they never challenged themselves, they were basically living off of the labor of others rather than their own. I mean it all makes sense doesn’t it? If I can get some one else to do something for me, why should I even bother attempting it, right? It’s like having an all around the clock maid—so handy! That’s the mentality that many had at the time, and oddly enough, to this day it remains an issue.
For instance, every semester a syllabus is handed to students, which contains the expectancies of the class in regards to academic integrity and along with that, it states the repercussions that come with disobeying the established policies. That proves that people will always be encouraged to think for themselves instead of using the ideas of others. That was on a whole other tangent (tends to happen often whilst discussing a rather dull historic topic), but I thought it somewhat relevant? Maybe?Well to sum this all up, I believe that there will always be a source of influence in our lives, so our own “reason” will continuously be skewed. We just Kant stop, and won’t stop taking the “easy” way out.
-Shirley Mieses
I can’t agree more with your post. After reading Immanuel Kant:What is Enlightenment? I found it really interesting and it opened up my mind to think of examples of how we will always take orders. I also looked at it another way, i believe that we need order for us to function as a society, I believe that sometimes order gives us a foundation to make things happen for ourselves. We do need to ability to input our own opinions and also be able to think for ourselves. In Today’s day that has allowed many of our great people like Steve jobs think creatively and freely to accomplish his dreams, but with order.
“The motto of enlightenment” prompts us to bravely use our own mental faculties and think for ourselves. This may be a seemingly simple concept to grasp yet its implementation is not. I certainly agree with your assertion of a modern “laziness epidemic.” I argue that technology has encroached into our lives far too much. Society has thus developed too great of a dependence on its assorted gadgetry. While we may not have “thinking maids,” it seems that the pervasive ethos of our generation would state: “Why should I think? There’s an app for that.” [Note: One could also replace “app” with “Google” to the same effect].
I agree with you that the author has made his point by pointing out how creative, challenging, and proactive people have become around the world after Enlightenment. There is no a doubt about how Enlightenment has made our lives much better. But let’s not be confused with two similar but very different meaning words, which is “the motto of Enlightenment, having the courage to use your own reason” and the guidance of how to reason. To me the orders are made in other to make us reason with sense, fairness, and responsibly. Without orders we will all do what we feel like, it does not matter if it is right or wrong, if it is fair or not to the others. So in order to be able to use your own reason in doing anything or taking any decisions, one should know what’s good or bad, right or wrong for themselves and for others. The only way to know all that is by knowing the orders that apply to your decisions and your way of reasoning, and with that being said, the orders are just guidance to a better reasoning.
Maybe it’s because we live in such a different world, but I still can’t wrap my mind around how for so long, people lived such a sad existence. How could people sit idly by and be told how they should live their lives? How is it that humans are so easily satisfied with easy explanations force fed by the likes of the church. Sure it’s easy! And lazy! So in that sense I can see how living in the dark ages can be appealing. Yet with that said, questioning for me comes easy. I’m glad that Kant and the enlightenment came along, because if they hadn’t we’d still be living in those same old dark ages. But who knows, maybe more of us would be happy? Being force fed the same old tune over and over again. It’s not like now a days we aren’t force fed by marketing schemes and our politicians anyways.