The Enlightenment: Kant and Twain – D4 & 5

“Enlightening is, Man’s quitting the nonage occasioned by himself. Nonage or minority is the inability of making use of one’s own understanding without the guidance of another”

–      Immanuel Kant, Freedom to Reason

During these days, we discussed Kant’s definition of Enlightening. We had trouble finding what Kant meant by nonage, because in my perspective we can have understanding and use it. The difference between some who has reached the Enlightment and someone who hasn’t is that the enlightened does not need the guidance of another for him or her to use their own understanding. Nevertheless, both can make use of their understanding. This idea was one of the main points to discuss, without getting to a unanimous decision. What I liked of Kant’s essay was the phrase, Sapere aude! In Latin, this means, “dare to wise” or “dare to know”. Kant made this phrase well known, however it is attributed to Horace in his Epistles where he wrote: dimidium facti qui coepit habet: sapere aude, incipe ("He who has begun is half done: dare to know!").

On Tuesday, we read Mark Twain’s posthumous essay, Corn-Pone Opinions. It is about the relationship he had with his family’s slave, a black man. Twain says: “The black philosopher’s idea was that a man is not independent, and cannot afford views which might interfere with his bread and butter”. Bread and butter? Please, don’t get me into it again! After an exhausting discussion (which I take part of the responsibility) of what does Twain meant by “bread and butter”, we concluded that it was the “well being” of people. At first, I thought Twain was referring to the group’s opinions and way of thinking in which one belongs. Part of the problem was that many of my classmates thought of “bread and butter” as only the food and way of survival, there was my problem. I then realized that it was not only that, but also the social status and general well being, and how can our opinions, if different from those of the general opinion, can harm our well being, our “bread and butter”.

Today, I also learned that many times in a dialogue people discuss what they believe, and not the texts. They don’t try to understand what the author is trying to tell us. It also bothers me that people don’t respect their time to talk, and just keep interrupting. Some of them don’t listen, but they want to be heard. I keep telling myself that this is a process of learning to dialogue, so I try to keep calm. Easy Hulk, not yet! Goosfraba…