Answering the Question: “What Is Enlightenment?”
Kant answers the question quite succinctly in the first sentence of the essay:
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.” He argues that the immaturity is self-inflicted not from a lack of understanding, but from…
You can read.
Which is to say, you can glance at a piece of paper (or a glowing screen) and immediately, effortlessly take in the thoughts of someone else. The greatest philosophers, poets, scientists, novelists, artists, and world leaders in history have left the contents of their thoughts just lying around in a form that you can access instantly.
We take it for granted, but it’s really magical.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) spent his entire life in a city on the remote eastern frontier of the German Empire. He never traveled more than a few miles from his hometown of Königsberg, a city which today is no longer in Germany but Russia.
Kant believed in his own rational thinking, and did not consider traveling necessary to solve the problems of philosophy. However, he was not withdrawn until late in life. He enjoyed conversation and was very interested in the accounts of travellers.
Kant himself almost never laughed, and like Buster Keaton, he told funny anecdotes with a stone face.
It is said that the citizens of Königsberg set their clocks according to the position of the gray presence of Professor Kant on his daily walk down and back the same street every day.
In 1762, Immanuel Kant did something unprecedented: he missed his daily walk. He stayed home to read Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s new book Emile, a philosophical novel on education which was to exercise a profound and revolutionary influence on his thought.
He died at Königsberg on 12 February 1804, uttering “Es ist gut”(“It is good”) before expiring.
Kant was also a great host. He threw great dinner parties to which he invited students and colleagues. He never invited anyone until the day of the dinner so that they would not feel obliged to come if they had other plans. He had one rule at dinner. There were three topics which were not to be discussed: politics, religion, and philosophy. (Tim Burns)
Oh, and let’s not forget: he died a virgin.
Descartes’ concept of ‘evil demon’.
In his 1641 Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes hypothesized the existence of an evil demon, a personification who is “as clever and deceitful as he is powerful, who has directed his entire effort to misleading me.” The evil demon presents a complete illusion of an external world, including other minds, to Descartes’ senses, where in fact there is no such external world in existence. The evil genius also presents to Descartes’ senses a complete illusion of his own body, including all bodily sensations, when in fact Descartes has no body.
Cervantes, Don Quijote
“Well, Sancho, by the same oath you swore before, I swear to you,” said Don Quixote, “that you have the dimmest wits that any squire in the world has or ever had. Is it possible that in all the time you have traveled with me you have not yet noticed that all things having to do with knights errant appear to be chimerical, foolish, senseless, and turned inside out? And not because they really are, but because hordes of enchanters always walk among us and alter and change everything and turn things into whatever they please, according to whether they wish to favor us or destroy us; and so what seems to you a barber’s basin seems to me the helmet of Mambrino, and will seem another thing to someone else.”
This too shall pass are simple words that carry tremendous power. All things are temporary. You are born, you live you die, And so you are transient. Houses, clothes, cars, relationships come and go. Anger, resentment, disappointment come and go.
Keep this in mind the next time you find yourself in a less than desirable situation. It will decrease the strength of the emotion you feel. When things are going great, remember they will not last forever so really enjoy the moments. Make the most of them.
What this really means is enjoy the now and live with love and peace….♥
Beatriz Esmer 