reading response

Yang Zhou

Reading test1

2021.1.23

Enlightenment

The Central Thesis

The article's major thesis includes the disability of a man to use his understanding without the need to have other people's guidance. The term is referred to as enlightenment or "the man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity." Enlightenment involves a range of ideas united on sovereignty and senses evidence as to the fundamental source of advanced idea and knowledge, including toleration, progress, liberty, fraternity, and other related elements. In essence, the thesis revolves around the fact that many people in the contemporary world possess laziness and cowardice in using their understanding of aspects. Instead, they depend on other people's guidance. Immaturity has become the second nature of humans, and it is difficult for an individual to work his way out of it. Besides, it has become a habit of many people to rely on others to use a payment approach for other individuals to think on their behalf.

The Author’s Motivation

I think the author's major motivation to write the text is the need for the public to have their freedom of using their understanding and breaking the chain of a permanent immaturity. In essence, "people are used to immaturity that they are incapable of trusting their understanding in different aspects" since they were never given a chance to put what they believe into practice (Nagamori, 2020). They lack experience in exercising their understanding, and as such, they are used to believe and follow what has been decided by others without the need to question why things are done in a certain way. What is at stake is the public concern that is not given its freedom. Few people who have managed to work themselves out of the immaturity might drive the whole public in their interests that may not benefit the public instead.

Terminologies Used

One of the author's key terminology includes enlightenment, which is the ability of an individual to emerge from their self-incurred immaturity. The author uses the terminology to emphasize that the public should have the courage to use its understanding. The author also emphasizes that" there are more chances for enlightening the entire public if its concern is set to freedom." Another significant terminology utilized by the author is immaturity. He uses the immaturity terminology to show men's inability to use their understanding without the need to have guidance from others. Instead of cultivating their minds and freeing themselves from others' chains, they rely on other people's opinions to make theirs on certain aspects of life (Nagamori, 2020). The relationship between the two terminologies is that immaturity prevents people from achieving their enlightenment, which is the basic to man's freedom.

Author’s Examples

One of the examples the author uses to support his thesis includes the presence of a "book to have an understanding in place of an individual." The example has worked well to support the thesis since a book will eventually enable a person to understand a certain concept, thereby ending up not using their own thinking (Pinker, 2018). Another essential example used includes a spiritual adviser to have a conscience for another person. Also, the example works well since the spiritual advisor will use his own understanding of a concept on behalf of another person. Besides, another example used is the use of a doctor to judge one's diet. Here, the patient fails to use his own understanding of what he should eat and instead rely on a doctor to tell him what he should eat and that one not to use in the diet.

Critical Concern

As an international student, I don't really know enough about this to make a statement, and my analysis is probably more international. Anyway, my critical concern is that with time, the public freedom to use their own understating on different matters is being depleted by few enlightened individuals. People are anonymously prevented from using their understanding of different aspects and instead are forced to follow certain ways following an autocratic despotism. People are forced to follow certain understanding without questioning or arguing with them. For example, a tax-official will ask an individual to pay a certain amount without questioning why it is being paid. As such, "this is likely to lead the public to oppression and prevent revolution and reform regarding freedom of thinking and to use one's understanding to judge or make a decision in life."      

A Contemporary Issue

One of the common issues is the government ruling on certain policies that benefit a specific group of people but undermine the public interest. For instance, on many occasions, the Trump administration has attempted to undermine the public trust in democracy. In 2020, Trump attempted to undermine the public's confidence in voting procedures (Fried and Harris, 2020). Specifically, his reaction to the expansion of some states in mail-in voting in the pandemic's name undermined the voters' confidence following his tweet, "the Mail-In Ballots would be fraudulent." Here, he was forcing the public to use his thinking in judging the Mail-In Ballot process. Many Americans had lost confidence in this process, and this shows how they were immature. They could not use their understanding, and rather, they believed the understanding of another person to make their own conclusion. The text helps in navigating the issue by enlightening people to use their understanding of matters.

Work Cited

Amy Fried, Douglas B. Harris. (2020). In Suspense: Donald Trump's Efforts to Undermine Public Trust in Democracy. Derived from;

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-020-00526-y

Nagamori, N. (2020). Kant's Theory of Imagination: From Immaturity to Enlightenment.

Pinker, S. (2018). Enlightenment now: The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress. Penguin.