When reading Kant's "What is Enlightenment?", I had two major questions at the forefront of my mind. The first question was "How am I supposed to understand this?" After reading the selection again as well as a study guide, the second question running through my head was "why?" The "why" aspect was specifically regarding the first few paragraphs about laziness. I understand that mankind doesn't care to work for their own education, but why would they work to recognize that they need an education in the first place? Although I really don't know what the answer to that question is, I can't help but feel it is extremely applicable in today's society with the rise of computers doing work for people. More and more ordinary tasks are being replaced by the efficiency of technology, leaving simple man wrapped in algorithms to create the perfect Spotify playlist and to remember where he parked his car. If Enlightenment or the Age of Reason came about after a time of people simply accepting common belief and never thinking for themselves, should we expect that we are entering into another dark age? I can't help but believe that there would be an intellectual reckoning were such a thing to happen, yet at the same time it feels like less and less people are using their minds for good, only scrolling endlessly into an onslaught of ad hominem attacks on social media. I'm very glad that Honors groups like ours exist to combat intellectual laziness.
Edit: I commented on Osten and Hailey's posts.
Edit: I commented on Osten and Hailey's posts.
Comments
I fully believe that you are right and that we are entering another dark age. Should a catastrophic event (such as imagined in Y2K) ever occur, I believe the masses would lose their sole mode of thinking. We would undergo, as you put it, "an intellectual reckoning" and power would fall not to the free thinkers but to those who have remained under "self-incurred tutelage". I am also glad that Honors and other groups exist to buck against the hive mind.