Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know] “Have courage to use your own understanding!”–that is the motto of enlightenment.
– Immanuel Kant, “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?”
The Enlightenment. Those two words send a cascade of awe and delight down my spine. They set synapses to firing like chains of fireworks. Names and ideas erupt from the sparks: Newton, Spinoza and Leibniz released science and mathematics from their classical and medieval cages and advanced them by light years in a virtual instant. Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau struck through chains and risked their lives to set human minds free. Locke, Smith and Montesquieu set forth major components of political and economic philosophy that led to democracy and capitalism. Franklin, Jefferson, and Hamilton created a whole new kind of nation from scratch. Beethoven, Mozart, and Goethe elevated music and literature to heights they had never known before.
Men, and not a few women, dared to know, and changed the world.
There had been hints of an awakening for centuries. A few flames burned dimly in the Middle Ages. A few flames flared up brilliantly during the Renaissance. But the Enlightenment was a conflagration, a wildfire beside a candelabra. In less than two centuries, the scientific method arose and began advancing knowledge at an incredible pace; the foundations of democracy and liberalism were laid and thriving nations built on them; education was no longer a prerogative of the fortunate few, but a practical gift offered to a broad swath of the population. The entire Western way of thinking changed virtually beyond recognition. All of those ideas we take for granted – freedom of religion, equality, political and civil rights, and countless more – emerged because of men and women who refused to remain ignorant.
Look at the lives and work of any group of Enlightenment thinkers, and you’ll see similarities. They were desperate to know and understand. They were determined to use rational thought to overcome superstition. They believed in man’s ability to understand the world. They didn’t believe religion had all the answers, or even most. They weren’t afraid to challenge established authority; indeed, they often risked their lives to do so. They found ways to make end-runs around the censors, evaded every attempt to silence them, and believed beyond doubt that what they were doing was right, necessary, and valuable.
They argued with absolutely everyone, each other included. They accepted no limits to their curiosity. There was nowhere to them that Man was forbidden to go.
All is not lost when one puts the people in a condition to see it has intelligence. On the contrary, all is lost when you treat it like a herd of cattle, for sooner or later it will gore you with its horns.
In the salons of Paris, the coffee houses and Gresham College in London, in the dining rooms and halls of power all throughout Europe, intellect raged. Pamphlets, books, magazines, scientific papers all poured into the streets and captured the imaginations of men and women who then used those ideas to create new governments, societies, and values. Knowledge was passed into the hands of ordinary people, and those ordinary people did extraordinary things with it.
The two revolutions of the 18th century, the American and the French, get all of the attention, but neither would have been possible without the revolution in ideas that preceded them. Never before in the history of Western civilization had common people been entrusted to govern. Even Greece, that thriving original democracy, was more of an aristocracy than anything else. But the Enlightenment thinkers believed that all regular people lacked was education and the freedom to use their native intelligence. Given those things, a peasant could rise to rule. Peasants eventually did.
It wasn’t just the aristocracy and absolute monarchy that the Enlightenment thinkers overthrew. They broke the stranglehold religion had over the populace. Religion didn’t escape their scrutiny. The sacred got subjected to the same empirical analysis as the natural world, and where it was found wanting, it suffered the same scathing criticism unleashed on politics, pseudoscience, and ignorance. Some of them treated Christianity with respect and reverence, but they were in a minority. Most Enlightenment thinkers had no use for a Church that sought to keep people in ignorance and servitude, a faith that led to intolerance and claimed miracles it couldn’t prove, and religions rotten with hypocrisy.
“Let’s eat some Jesuit,” Voltaire wrote in Candide. Baron d’Holbach proselytized for atheism, churning out a flood of books and pamphlets proclaiming that there is no God, only nature, and that only a society of atheists has any hope of being truly moral. He often had to publish his books under innocuous titles to evade the censors. But other philosophes left nothing to doubt with theirs: among the books on offer was Toland’s Christianity Not Mysterious. Pretty revolutionary for a world in which religion still ruled.
Other books might have seemed innocent enough until they were opened. Woolston’s Six Discourses on the Miracles of Our Savior proclaimed the Resurrection of Christ “the most notorious and monstrous Imposture, that was ever put upon mankind.” Voltaire, when completing the Philosophical Dictionary, wrote, “Theology amuses me. There we find man’s insanity in all its plenitude.” Jefferson removed all of the miracles from the Bible, a decision which Hume would have applauded.
The only sacred thing was the pursuit of knowledge. Rational thinking, empiricism, science, and intellect reigned supreme. The next world meant very little to them, if anything at all. People had to make a difference in this one. And that was exactly what they set out to do, and succeeded. They brought us the modern age.
A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to Farce, or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance. and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
The Enlightenment never truly ended: its results permeate every aspect of our lives. But there hasn’t been another time quite like it since. The passion for knowledge has been eclipsed. We’ve entered an age in which ignorance rather than intelligence is celebrated. As Kant said, it’s easier to be immature, to let others do the thinking. We become habituated to the yoke: we become afraid of freedom. “The guardians who have so benevolently taken over the supervision of men have carefully seen to it that the far greatest part of them (including the entire fair sex) regard taking the step to maturity as very dangerous, not to mention difficult,” Kant wrote. “Having first made their domestic livestock dumb, and having carefully made sure that these docile creatures will not take a single step without the go-cart to which they are harnessed, these guardians then show them the danger that threatens them, should they attempt to walk alone.”
He could have been describing our age.
Fundamentalist religion is attempting to rein us in. Governments want to control, not serve, the governed. This has always been the case. The powerful never relinquish power easily, and they always desire more power. It’s easier for them to take it from people made willfully powerless.
War, poverty, ignorance and despair are rising all around us.
We should be thrilled
After all, the Enlightenment grew out of a desperate age. Europe was torn by war, crushed by despotic governments, ripped apart by religious strife, and it was from this harrowing that the philosophes grew. When I look at the conditions surrounding the Enlightenment, I see clear parallels. Strife can destroy people: it can also galvanize them.
I think we’re standing on the cusp of a new Age of Enlightenment.
Bloggers are the new pamphleteers. What bloggers are saying today about politics and religion, life and learning, show the same spirit as those tracts poured from the pens of subversive thinkers who went on to redefine the foundations of the world.
Comments threads and message boards have become the new salons, where ideas are exchanged and intelligence elevated. Those discussions wouldn’t have been out of place in the most illustrious gatherings of learned people.
All we need is the passion, the commitment, and the courage those revolutionaries displayed. Nothing is beyond us. But we have to step outside of the little boxes we’ve put ourselves in. Scientists need to brush shoulders with artists. Writers need to converse with mathematicians. Political philosophers and musicians should mingle. That cross-fertilization of knowledge is what leads to world-shaking ideas, quantum leaps in human understanding.
Politeness and deference are sweet social ideas, but we can’t defer to those who would impose ignorance and superstition. Contention was the order of the day during the Enlightenment. We should never shy away from it. Conventional thinking will get us nowhere. The world is on the cusp of a crisis: we’re never going to get anything solved if we don’t break away from tradition and habit. We won’t solve a damned thing if we don’t risk capsizing the boat.
The philosophes changed the world not by force of arms, but force of mind. Their ideas, their writings, their experiments, are what changed the world irrevocably.
It can happen again. Ignorance has no power to stand against those who dare to know. And those who dare have the power to change everything.
Here and today begins a new age in the history of the world. Some day you will be able to say – I was present at its birth.”
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Uangavu ni kuibuka kwa mwanadamu kutoka kwa ukosefu wake wa ukomavu wa kujilazimisha. Ukosefu wa ukomavu ni kutoweza kutumia uelewa wa mtu bila mwongozo kutoka kwa mwingine. Ujamaa huu ni wa kujilazimisha wakati sababu yake haiko katika ukosefu wa uelewa, lakini katika ukosefu wa azimio na ujasiri wa kuitumia bila mwongozo kutoka kwa mwingine. Sapere Aude! (Sapere Aude) [Dare kujua] <unk> Kuwa na ujasiri wa kutumia uelewa wako mwenyewe! <unk> Hiyo ni kauli mbiu ya mwangaza. Immanuel Kant, Jibu la Swali: Uamsho Ni Nini? Maneno hayo mawili yananiletea hofu na furaha nyingi. Wao huweka synapses kwa risasi kama minyororo ya fireworks. "Jina na mawazo ya watu huibuka kutoka kwenye miali: Newton, Spinoza na Leibniz walitoa sayansi na hisabati kutoka kwenye magereza yao ya kale na ya enzi za kati na kuendeleza kwa miaka ya nuru katika muda mfupi tu.""" Voltaire, Diderot na Rousseau walipiga kupitia minyororo na kuhatarisha maisha yao ili kuweka akili za kibinadamu huru. Locke, Smith na Montesquieu waliweka sehemu kuu za falsafa ya kisiasa na kiuchumi ambayo ilisababisha demokrasia na ubepari. Franklin, Jefferson, na Hamilton waliunda aina mpya kabisa ya taifa kutoka mwanzo. Beethoven, Mozart, na Goethe waliinua muziki na fasihi kwenye urefu ambao hawakuwa wameujua hapo awali. Wanaume, na wanawake wengi, walijaribu kujua, na kubadili ulimwengu. Kulikuwa na dalili za kuamka kwa karne nyingi. Mioto michache ilichoma kwa ukali katika Enzi za Kati. Mioto michache ilichomeka kwa ujanja wakati wa Enzi ya Renaissance. Lakini Enlightenment ilikuwa moto mkali, moto mkali kando ya kandelabri. Katika muda usiozidi karne mbili, mbinu ya kisayansi ilitokea na kuanza kuendeleza maarifa kwa kasi ya ajabu; misingi ya demokrasia na uhuru iliwekwa na mataifa yaliyofanikiwa yalijengwa juu yake; elimu haikuwa tena haki ya watu wachache wenye bahati, bali zawadi ya vitendo iliyotolewa kwa sehemu kubwa ya watu. Njia nzima ya kufikiri ya Magharibi ilibadilika hivi kwamba haikuweza kutambuliwa. Mawazo yote ambayo sisi huyaona kuwa ya kawaida - uhuru wa dini, usawa, haki za kisiasa na kiraia, na mengine mengi - yalitokea kwa sababu ya wanaume na wanawake waliokataa kubaki wasiojua. Angalia maisha na kazi ya kikundi chochote cha wasomi wa Enlightenment, na utaona kufanana. Walikuwa na hamu ya kujua na kuelewa. Walikuwa na azimio la kutumia kufikiri kwa njia yenye busara ili kushinda ushirikina. Waliamini katika uwezo wa mwanadamu wa kuelewa ulimwengu. Hawakusadiki kwamba dini ilikuwa na majibu yote, au hata mengi. Hawakuogopa kupinga mamlaka iliyopo; kwa kweli, mara nyingi walihatarisha maisha yao kufanya hivyo. Walijikuta njia za kuepuka wasimamizi, wakiepuka kila jaribio la kuwafanya wamnyamaze, na kuamini bila shaka kwamba kile walichokuwa wakifanya kilikuwa sahihi, muhimu, na chenye thamani. Walibishana na kila mtu, kutia ndani wao wenyewe. Hawakuamini kwamba kuna mipaka kwa ajili ya udadisi wao. Hakukuwa na mahali pa kwenda kwa ajili yao ambapo Mwanadamu alikatazwa kwenda. Yote hayapotea wakati mtu anapoweka watu katika hali ya kuona kuwa wana akili. Kinyume chake, kila kitu kimepotea unapolitendea kama kundi la ng'ombe, kwa sababu mapema au baadaye itakutenganisha na pembe zake. Katika saluni za Paris, katika nyumba za kahawa, na katika chuo cha Gresham huko London, katika vyumba vya kulia chakula na majumba ya mamlaka kote Ulaya, akili ilisumbuliwa. Magazeti, vitabu, na vitabu vya habari vilitoka katika maeneo mbalimbali na kuvutia mawazo ya watu ambao walitumia mawazo hayo kuunda serikali mpya, jamii mpya na maadili mapya. Ujuzi ulipitishwa mikononi mwa watu wa kawaida, na watu hao wa kawaida walifanya mambo ya ajabu nayo. Mapinduzi mawili ya karne ya 18, ya Marekani na ya Ufaransa, yanapata uangalifu wote, lakini hakuna hata moja ambayo ingewezekana bila mapinduzi ya mawazo yaliyowatangulia. Haijawahi kutokea katika historia ya ustaarabu wa Magharibi kwamba watu wa kawaida walipewa mamlaka ya kutawala. Hata Ugiriki, demokrasia hiyo ya awali iliyokuwa ikitawala kwa mafanikio, ilikuwa ya watu mashuhuri kuliko kitu kingine chochote. Lakini wanafikra wa Enlightenment waliamini kwamba watu wa kawaida walipokosa tu elimu na uhuru wa kutumia akili zao za asili. Kwa kuzingatia mambo hayo, mkulima angeweza kuwa mtawala. Hatimaye wakulima walifanya hivyo. Haikuwa tu aristocracy na monarchy kamili kwamba wasomi Enlightenment kuangushwa. Walivunja uvutano wa dini juu ya watu. Dini haikuponyoka uchunguzi wao. "Utakatifu ulipigwa chini ya uchambuzi uleule wa kihistoria kama ulimwengu wa asili, na pale ulipopatikana ukikosa, ulipatwa na ukosoaji uleule mkali uliotolewa kwa siasa, sayansi bandia, na ujinga.""" Baadhi yao walitendea Ukristo kwa heshima na heshima, lakini walikuwa wachache. Wanasayansi wengi wa Enlightenment hawakuona umuhimu wa Kanisa ambalo lilitafuta kuwaweka watu katika ujinga na utumwa, imani ambayo ilisababisha kutovumiliana na kudai miujiza ambayo haikuweza kuthibitisha, na dini zilizooza kwa unafiki. "Hebu tule baadhi ya Jesuit", Voltaire aliandika katika Candide. Baron d'Holbach alitangaza kuwa anaamini kwamba hakuna Mungu, kwamba hakuna Mungu, na kwamba jamii ya watu wasioamini kwamba kuna Mungu tu ndiyo inayoweza kuwa na maadili. Mara nyingi alilazimika kuchapisha vitabu vyake chini ya majina yasiyo na madhara ili kuepuka ukaguzi. Lakini wanafalsafa wengine hawakuacha shaka yoyote na yao: miongoni mwa vitabu vilivyotolewa kulikuwa na kitabu cha Toland kinachoitwa Christianity Not Mysterious. Ni jambo la ajabu sana kwa ulimwengu ambao dini bado inatawala. Vitabu vingine vingeweza kuonekana kuwa visivyo na hatia mpaka vikafunguliwa. "Wolston, katika kitabu chake cha Six Discourses on the Miracles of Our Savior, alitangaza ufufuo wa Kristo kuwa ""udanganyifu wenye sifa mbaya zaidi na wenye kutisha zaidi ambao umewahi kutendwa na wanadamu."" - Voltaire, katika kitabu chake cha Philosophical Dictionary, mwaka wa 1618." Huko tunapata wazimu wa mwanadamu katika ukamilifu wake wote. Jefferson aliondoa miujiza yote kutoka kwa Biblia, uamuzi ambao Hume angekuwa amepongeza. Jambo pekee takatifu lilikuwa kutafuta ujuzi. Mawazo ya busara, uthibitisho wa mambo, sayansi, na akili zilitawala juu kabisa. Ulimwengu wa pili haukuwa na maana kubwa kwao, ikiwa hata ulikuwa na maana yoyote. Watu walipaswa kufanya tofauti katika hili. Na hilo ndilo hasa walilokuwa wameanza kufanya, na walifanikiwa. Walituletea enzi ya kisasa. Serikali ya watu bila habari ya watu au njia ya kupata ni Prologue tu kwa Farce, au Tragedy, au labda wote wawili. Ujuzi utatawala ujinga milele. Na watu wanaotaka kuwa magavana wao wenyewe, lazima wajitengenezee silaha kwa nguvu ambayo maarifa hutoa. Enlightenment haikukoma kamwe: matokeo yake yanaenea katika kila sehemu ya maisha yetu. Lakini haijawahi kutokea tena jambo kama hilo tangu wakati huo. Shauku ya kupata ujuzi imepungua. Tumeingia katika enzi ambapo ujinga badala ya akili huadhimishwa. Kama Kant alivyosema, ni rahisi kuwa asiye na ukomavu, kuwaacha wengine wafanye kufikiri. Tunazoea nira, tunaogopa uhuru. "Walezi ambao kwa fadhili sana wamechukua usimamizi wa wanaume wameangalia kwa uangalifu kwamba sehemu kubwa zaidi ya wao (ikiwa ni pamoja na jinsia yote ya haki) huona kuchukua hatua ya ukomavu kama hatari sana, bila kutaja ngumu. """ "Wakiwa wameweka wanyama wao wa kufugwa kuwa bubu, na kuwa wamefanya kwa uangalifu kwamba viumbe hawa wa hali ya chini hawatapiga hatua moja bila go-cart ambayo wameunganishwa nayo, walinzi hawa kisha wanawaonyesha hatari inayowatishia, ikiwa watajaribu kutembea peke yao. """ Dini ya msingi inajaribu kutuzuia. Serikali zinataka kudhibiti, wala si kuwahudumia wale wanaotawaliwa. Sikuzote imekuwa hivyo. Watu wenye nguvu hawaachii kamwe mamlaka kwa urahisi, na sikuzote wanatamani kuwa na mamlaka zaidi. Ni rahisi kwao kuichukua kutoka kwa watu waliofanya kimakusudi kuwa hawana nguvu. Vita, umaskini, ujinga na kukata tamaa zinaongezeka kote kwetu. Baada ya yote, Enlightenment ilikua kutoka kwa enzi ya kukata tamaa. Ulaya ilivunjwa na vita, ilivunjwa na serikali za kimabavu, ilivunjwa na mapigano ya kidini, na ni kutokana na mateso hayo kwamba wanafalsafa walikua. Ninapotazama hali zilizozunguka Enlightenment, naona ulinganifu ulio wazi. Mzozo waweza kuwaangamiza watu: waweza pia kuwachochea. Nadhani tuko kwenye kilele cha Enzi mpya ya Uelewevu. Wanablogu ni waandishi wa vijitabu vipya. """Kile wanablogu wanachosema leo kuhusu siasa na dini, maisha na elimu, huonyesha roho ileile kama ile ya vijitabu vilivyomwagika kutoka kwa kalamu za wasomi wa uharibifu ambao waliendelea kuelezea upya misingi ya ulimwengu." Vichwa vya maoni na mabaraza ya ujumbe yamekuwa saluni mpya, ambapo mawazo yanabadilishwa na akili hupandishwa. Mazungumzo hayo yangekuwa sahihi katika mikusanyiko mashuhuri zaidi ya watu wenye elimu. Tunahitaji tu shauku, kujitolea, na ujasiri ambao wale waasi-hindu walionyesha. Hakuna kitu kinachotuzidi. Lakini ni lazima tutoke nje ya masanduku madogo ambayo tumejiweka ndani yake. Wanasayansi wanahitaji kushirikiana na wasanii. Waandishi wanahitaji kuzungumza na wanahisabati. Wanafalsafa wa kisiasa na wanamuziki wapaswa kuchangamana. Uvumbuzi wa maarifa ni kile kinachoongoza kwa mawazo ya kutikisa ulimwengu, kuruka kwa quantum katika uelewa wa binadamu. Uungwana na heshima ni mawazo mazuri ya kijamii, lakini hatuwezi kuachilia wale ambao wangetumia ujinga na ushirikina. Mabishano yalikuwa jambo la kawaida wakati wa Enlightenment. Hatupaswi kamwe kujiepusha nayo. Mawazo ya kawaida hayatatufikisha mahali popote. Ulimwengu uko kwenye kilele cha mgogoro: hatuwezi kamwe kupata chochote kutatuliwa ikiwa hatutatenganisha na utamaduni na tabia. Hatutashughulikia jambo lolote ikiwa hatutakuwa na hatari ya kugeuka mashua. Wanafalsafa walibadili ulimwengu si kwa nguvu za silaha, bali kwa nguvu za akili. Mawazo yao, maandishi yao, majaribio yao, ndiyo yaliyorudisha ulimwengu bila kubadilika. Hilo laweza kutokea tena. Ujinga hauna nguvu ya kusimama dhidi ya wale wanaohamasisha kujua. Na wale ambao wana ujasiri wana nguvu ya kubadilisha kila kitu. Hapa na leo huanza enzi mpya katika historia ya ulimwengu. "Siku moja utaweza kusema, ""Nilikuwapo wakati wa kuzaliwa kwake."""