A brief explanation of Kant's Enlightenment article Florian Millo* Abstract A presentation of Kant's idea for enlightenment process that was happening at that time. I try to be objective as it is needed to give a thorough explanation for what was the main subject in this process. Kant explains the main idea of enlightenment and describes it with examples for which stands descriptive and understandable for that period. *florian.millo@u-psud.fr Universite Paris-Saclay, Department of Physics 1 Introduction The problem of 18th-Century was deep inside man's mind, laziness, cowardice, immaturity. In Kant's paper, he starts the opening paragraph with a sentence. Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. [1] What can we understand from this sentence? First let's say that we see enlightenment as man's emergence, then what is the next process to take place? Many philosopher prefer to call enlightenment as multiple enlightements, as there were a lot of contributions from others fields that illuminated generations. One of Kant's preferred philosopher was Jean Jacque Rousseau and his main work was Social Contract, which was a thorough study of political and moral philosophy that motivated Kant to write on enlightenment. 2 Understanding sentences One of keywords in Kant's paper is immaturity. When he says - "Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another", he is talking about laziness. Is important the fact that immaturity is deeply related with laziness. One can say, no, for which none has an argument. The man has to use his mind to understand things by himself and by a guidance that does not requires any third parties. A good example of this was so called "Motto of Enlightenment" Dare to know!.....A line taken from Horace's Epode - 'Sapere Aude!' Next, I present a paragraph that is known to be a good example, it follows:-"If I have a book to serve as my understanding, a pastor to server as my consience, a physician to determine my diet for me, .... , I need not exert myself at all" In this example, Kant tells us that laziness had sorrounded everyone back then and everyone could not do anything without help from other parts of society. Thus, my understanding follows, if individual would work out to help theirselves, immaturity would become mature and never existed. Why immaturity existed? Is it even important? Rules and formulas, those mechanical aids to the rational use, or rather misuse, of his natural gifts, are the shackles of a permanent immaturity. Comment: One should free himself from immaturity and pursue a secure course. Kant argues that freedom of thinking is the key problem and not all had it. Freedom is the least harmful of all, and the freedom to use our reason publicly in all matters. Kant heard in all his sides: "Do not argue!" The officer says, "Do not argue, drill!" The tax man says, "Do not argue, pay!" The pastor says, "Do not argue, believe!. Comment: There were many restrictions back then, because of man's immaturity. All obeyed and with no protest. Checking all the chronology and what was the main problem, Kant deduced an answer for that:-"The use of man's reason must always be free, and it alone can brind out enlightenment among mans" Question: Which reason, private or public? Kant then defines two uses of reason: 1st: Public use of reason The use that everyone as a scholar makes of reason. 2nd: Private use of reason The use for which 1 a person may make in a civic post or office that has been trusted him. Comment: We have to understand, reason must be carefully used, because when it is used wrong in wrong places, one can call it a mistake but one can use it from his immaturity. Later on, Kant explains that we do not live in an enlightenment age but in an age of enlightenment. He then puts religion to present his main points, as for, Manner of thinking, Spiritual Freedom, Dignity. In the end Kant concludes that nature cares about religions principles applied to us, and thus they must be in accordance to principles of government, thus being in accord with people's dignity. Peoples must raise their spirit for freedom and the free of speach is one main thing, we should do. Dignity must agree with these principles, otherwise you need to change! As presenting these principles, we should have in mind Knowledge and Reason. Knowledge is important and as an archive of our brain, we must use it in different situations and to solve them. Theories of Knowledge explains that laziness and cowardice comes because one can not use his knowledge to finish what one wants and to do what one needs. Acknowledgement I thank Prof. Ted Humphrey for the good translation that he did, for which was a good source for me. References [1] An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? IMMANUEL KANT. Translation by Ted Humphrey [2] An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? 1784. Immanuel Kant [3] Image Other Works: [4] Observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos in three years of IceCube Data Florian Millo [5] High Velocity Cloud Analysis in HI4PI Data Florian Millo [6] γ − β Spectrometry of 207 Bi Florian Millo