Hi, my name is Shawn, I’m a senior majoring in psychology.  I have a really eclectic music taste, so I can recommend music from any genre.

Kant argues that enlightenment is the ability to separate oneself from man’s instinct and use qualities such as logic, morality, and reason.  It is difficult to achieve because it is self-inflicted; it is a product of one’s own mind and almost a prison within oneself.

Based on Kant’s definition, I think we mostly live in an enlightened society.  The fact that we are able to hold political systems and beliefs goes against our nature to hunt or gather or determine status by force.  Becoming emotional is another instinctive property, however, and this is not something that we have been able to against.  For example, referencing the rise of Donald Trump, many of his arguments have been argumentative fallacies which appeal to emotion rather than logic.  I would not recommend a different definition of enlightenment, but rather that we will never be truly enlightened.  In order to solely use logic and reasoning, we must completely lose our emotional states, which is not something that seems possible because of the amount that we use it now.  Another question to ask is would it be truly worth it to abandon our feelings.  Feelings are often considered the only thing that makes us “us” and makes life enjoyable.  Using only logic and reasoning, we would merely be functional, rather than “alive.”