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Q7. What do each of the following quotations mean to you?

(a) “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.” – Immanuel Kant.

Approach:

• Briefly discuss the concept of self-incurred immaturity and the reasons for it.
• Explain the meaning of enlightenment and ways to achieve it by overcoming self-incurred immaturity.
• Conclude appropriately.

Answer:

Immaturity means the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another. Enlightenment may be achieved when one frees himself/herself from his/her self-incurred immaturity. This immaturity is self-incurred and arises due to lack of understanding.

It also stems from the following reasons

• Lack of resolution to use one’s knowledge: For instance, despite knowing that HIV/AIDS does not get transmitted merely through physical touch, people maintain a physical distance from those suffering from HIV/AIDS and discriminate against them in social settings.
• Cowardice among a large section of society due to which people are not able to emerge out of their immaturity: For example, a large section of the Germans in Nazi Germany did not have the courage to speak out against Hitler’s policy against the Jews despite knowing about its consequences.
• Self-doubt about oneself: In which reduces a person’s ability to think out of the box. In 18th century Europe, many people began to emphasize on the importance of science and reason, rather than religion and tradition. This was deemed as the period of Enlightenment by European philosophers like Kant. According to Kant, enlightenment means, “having courage to use your one’s own understanding”.

In this context, ways to overcome self-incurred immaturity to achieve enlightenment include-

• Cultivating one’s own mind: By inculcating knowledge and cultivating one’s own mind, people can succeed in freeing themselves from immaturity and in continuing boldly on the path chosen for themselves.
• Ability to use reason: Rational decision making is a multi-step process which involves formulating a goal, identifying the criteria for making a decision, identifying alternatives, analysing the context and then taking a final decision. Reasoning and rationality become the path to achieving enlightenment.
• Identifying the risks appropriately: Sometimes poor decisions are taken just because risks are not appropriately identified due to poor analytical skills and lack of reasoning. Thus, risk identification is an important way to overcome immaturity.
• Wider consultation before taking a final decision: It is important because sometimes one lacks proper understanding of the issue at hand and one may end up taking a narrow approach while taking a decision.

One’s behavior is based on his/her own reasoning. A person should be objective, well-reasoned and think without any ethnocentric bias while taking a decision. Hence for this, he/she needs to be enlightened from his/her experiences gained from immaturity and move towards rationality and maturity.