Q2 Kant and Thoreau
Kant in ‘What is enlightenment’ and Thoreau in ‘Civil disobedience’ both have talked to the people to give up blindingly trusting the authorities and developing maturity/moral conscience. They both in a way are trying to make people to think freely and act judiciously not particularly according to the law but according to their morals , according to what is right. Kant has written his work in the time of monarchs while Thoreau has written against the works of a democracy. So even when Kant urge to people to freely use their right to speak in public but he does not talks directly about disobeying the government however Thoreau was open about the idea of going against the democratic government since they are not doing what …show more content…
Kant proclaims laziness , fear and blind obedience as the reason because of which people can’t achieve enlightenment. He further explains that during our childhood , adolescence period we are very much dependent on our parents, guardians, friends to either make decisions for us or we simply follow their footsteps without applying the mind of our own so at that stage we are very lazy to think for ourselves and thus we can’t reach the required maturity level. About fear , the philosopher, explains that the fear of speaking our mind and putting our ideas in public is another hindrance for us to achieve the maturity. There is a fear in the general public to discuss things that have not been discussed in past and might have been marked as taboo and their cowardice in expressing their thoughts on such issues also prevents them from developing their intellectual as well as moral capacity. Kant asserts that blind obedience towards anything be it elders or the leaders is not good for anyone except domestic cattle. He explains that even when certain level of respect and obedience is required for the monarchy following them blindly is not the way to achieve enlightenment. Kant explains that the enlightenment of the monarchy/leaders is must as only then they will give enough freedom to the people to speak their minds. Kant believes that the freedom to speak anywhere about anything without the fear of getting punished is must for the enlightenment of people because when people will talk freely they will bring new ideas to the public which in turn help everyone to
Kant in ‘What is enlightenment’ and Thoreau in ‘Civil disobedience’ both have talked to the people to give up blindingly trusting the authorities and developing maturity/moral conscience. They both in a way are trying to make people to think freely and act judiciously not particularly according to the law but according to their morals , according to what is right. Kant has written his work in the time of monarchs while Thoreau has written against the works of a democracy. So even when Kant urge to people to freely use their right to speak in public but he does not talks directly about disobeying the government however Thoreau was open about the idea of going against the democratic government since they are not doing what …show more content…
Kant proclaims laziness , fear and blind obedience as the reason because of which people can’t achieve enlightenment. He further explains that during our childhood , adolescence period we are very much dependent on our parents, guardians, friends to either make decisions for us or we simply follow their footsteps without applying the mind of our own so at that stage we are very lazy to think for ourselves and thus we can’t reach the required maturity level. About fear , the philosopher, explains that the fear of speaking our mind and putting our ideas in public is another hindrance for us to achieve the maturity. There is a fear in the general public to discuss things that have not been discussed in past and might have been marked as taboo and their cowardice in expressing their thoughts on such issues also prevents them from developing their intellectual as well as moral capacity. Kant asserts that blind obedience towards anything be it elders or the leaders is not good for anyone except domestic cattle. He explains that even when certain level of respect and obedience is required for the monarchy following them blindly is not the way to achieve enlightenment. Kant explains that the enlightenment of the monarchy/leaders is must as only then they will give enough freedom to the people to speak their minds. Kant believes that the freedom to speak anywhere about anything without the fear of getting punished is must for the enlightenment of people because when people will talk freely they will bring new ideas to the public which in turn help everyone to