Hello class! My name is Simone Amar. Born and raised here in Manhattan, first language is French, attended Jewish school my entire life, took a gap year after high school to live in Israel, attended the University of Maryland and now I’m at Baruch! I am looking forward to learning great things in English class this semester!

Immanuel Kant emphasizes the process of Enlightenment in his piece, What is Enlightenment? Kant defines it a process of change, from being “immature” which he describes as the inability or unwillingness to “use his own understanding”. More precisely defined as being too dependent on others, which leads to laziness and cowardice. Kant proceeds to speak about the simplicity and convenience of being an immature man, yet how it is imperative to leave this current phase and turn to Enlightenment instead. The “self-incurred tutelage” he addresses pertains to having a source of protection or person of authority, essentially guarding you and doing things for you. Although this is easy way to go about life, he says that it is extremely harmful and prevents a sort of intellectual freedom. “The danger…threatens them if they try to walk unaided …for they would certainly learn to walk after a few falls…and usually frightens them off from further attempts.” So while they live a stress-free life, they never learn to grow out of this immaturity.

Kant lists several reasons why Enlightenment was difficult to achieve. As aforementioned, laziness and cowardice are two elements that surely averted from the Enlightenment. People saw no purpose in thinking logically and viewed knowledge expansion as an unnecessary burden. This made them cowards because ultimately, they were too afraid and lazy to learn. Kant also states that in order to achieve enlightenment, there must be freedom of speech, an attitude of acceptance, and honesty with oneself. Imagine trying to transform your stubborn, close-minded and lazy friend, or someone who is afraid of rejection or disproval from society. These three components, in my opinion, are very difficult manners for anyone to attain.

I do not think we live in an enlightened age. On the contrary, I think if Kant were to see how our society operates nowadays, he would give us a whole pep talk about being enlightened all over again! This ties back to the beginning of the first reading, The Enlightenment in Europe and the Americas, which poses the question of whether or not modernity is better. When I first read Kant’s work, it immediately reminded me of today’s popular discourse on artificial intelligence and technology. Although it is revolutionary, convenient, and useful to everyday life, it also poses many threats to our society. There is a fear that computers and machines will soon take on the tasks and jobs of humans. Yet, these innovations also be viewed as the same “authority” that, as Kant says, “have kindly taken upon themselves the work of supervision will soon see to it that by far the largest part of mankind.” So as Kant speaks of these ‘guardians’ like the “spiritual advisor [who has] a conscience for me” or the book, the doctor- I reflect on today’s day in age where there too is a sense of “self-incurred immaturity”. People are becoming too dependent on their mobile applications, computers, and the Internet. It’s convenient and simple, and it is holding us back from the freedom of using our own understanding! I also think we need modern day enlightenment!