Enlightenment Definition Essay

Journal Week #2
“Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another.”-Kant “What is Enlightenment”
This sentence made me stop and think. I feel like at my age, with myself and my peers, I deal a lot with the term immaturity. Whether it be someone calling me immature or when referring to what someone said or did. I had always thought of it as a lack of experience mixed with someone usually being self-centered. This sentence made me think more about what immaturity might have meant during the enlightenment era. For Kant, it seems to mean that a person cannot rely on their own experiences and observations. Instead they use someone else’s deductions, correct or not, to hold up their beliefs. This sounds sort

of like my definition. A lack of experience leads to immaturity. I however, believe it can stem from a self-centered trait. Kant seems to believe that it stems from a person not wanting to use their own intelligence. This difference may be explained from a difference in the circle we are coming from. I took my definition from modern day youth. Kant is coming from the aspect of scientist and inventors of the enlightenment era. Slightly different groups. If you think about it though, could selfishness be a form of incapacity to use your own intelligence? The world is not centered around one person after all.