Enlightenment

            Aunindita Afrin

Enlightenment immerges as a philosophical movement in the 17th and 18th century, influenced
by Renaissance, and Scientific Revolution mainly. The pivotal idea of the Enlightenment was the
use and celebration of reason, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve
their own condition. From the reading of Kant and Peter, it can be said that freedom of gaining
knowledge and the ability of using own reasons freely, is Enlightenment, although there would
remain a guide in this process. In other words, Enlightenment is a process in which one gains
maturity, courage and awareness.

According to Kant, “Enlightenment is men’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity”; the
motto of enlightenment is “have courage to use your own understanding.” Along with this, Peters
argued not just that education must involve learning, but that the learning must deepen and
broaden students' awareness of “the human condition.”  Here Enlightenment can be explained as
a way of creating awareness. In my opinion, it is quite true in the contemporary world that
people do not want to remain in any bindings in case of exploring different thread of knowledge
and using it in their own ways. That is why laws, rules and social practices are changing with the
passage of time for the good of society which can be taken as the ‘natural flow’ of civilization.
Rousseau stated, “…education comes to us from nature, from men and from things.” In Kant’s
view, the most important thing to be enlightened is freedom; freedom to use reason.

Enlightenment would not progress if any line of contract, oath or conclusion will be drawn on
the avenue of gaining it. There should remain a scope of bring changes in a society in the hand of
next generation. At present we are in a world of Enlightenment but if we can use this process in
every stage of life people would be more natural and frequent in their thoughts and acts. Still
there are a lot of nation who do not even aware of this freedom of mind and want to suppress the
liberal individuals for establishing their dictatorship.

Both of the writers explained that there should have a guide or an educator in this process
although there is some dissimilarity in their presentations. In Kant’s words a guide should not
remain in a fixed rule rather he should be more flexible in using his rationality in the public and
encourage his students to explore and make changes in any system according to their
understanding of reasons. They can just show the path for finding the answer to the students. On
the other hand, Peters said, in brief, that the process of education involves two stages. While the
first stage is characterized by teachers initiating students into worthwhile forms of thought and
awareness, the second stage involves “humans,” old and young, participating in shared learning
experiences. Here teachers give light on the path but do not give command to do or think
something fixed. An educator should also go through a judgment if he wants to judge any
student. Beside educators the rulers, lawyers and other leaders can play the same role if they
want a courageous, liberal nation aside from their dictatorship as well as superstitions.

Indeed, enlightenment is superior of individual. Kant concludes, the freedom to act grows rapidly
with the achieving of enlightenment. Peters also goes on the same way by ending like that
arriving to the destination through exploring different views will serve the true purpose of
education, to “touch the eternity”. In a nutshell, Enlightenment can be used to change human
society with free thinking leaders and guides in the society.