Understanding Enlightenment: Freedom of Thought and Public Discourse
Illustration: The Motto of the Enlightenment
The motto of the Enlightenment is “Dare to think independently.” Laziness or cowardice often suppresses the desire for more personal freedom, and this condition often leads to a state of immaturity.
The Difficulty of Achieving Maturity
It is difficult for individuals to walk on their own and break free from this immaturity. Only a few have achieved this, using reason to leave their immaturity behind. While we are children, it is not because we have nothing to do, but because we do not use our intelligence, that we become accustomed to this state.
The Public and the Enlightenment
However, it is likely that a public, as a set of non-thinking individuals, will be granted great freedoms of thought. This gives people the possibility to feel they are in front of the Enlightenment. They have freedom, and if a person is released from immaturity, for example, this route is slow and must be taken while under age. A revolution may fail and fall into despotism, where old prejudices are replaced with new ones.
Freedom and the Use of Reason
For this illustration, only the freedom to use public and private reasoning is needed. The public use of free thinking, which enables the positions of civil servants, should never be reduced. The use of private reason, therefore, should be reduced.
Private Use of Reason in Public Service
There are many activities in the interests of all. Thoughts have been published inappropriately regarding the service we aim to provide. We pay taxes so that this organization allows us to function. We must obey the population because we are passive. As long as we are qualified, we can publicly criticize our sentences, but we must fulfill our function: to obey.
The Clergy and Freedom of Thought
A priest might have to leave the clergy due to the obligation to carry out his will with the parishioners (the doctrine taught). However, his freedom of thought and conscience, without restriction or condition, will force him to feel it. If he thinks what he owns and what he has taught are the same, he will have resigned.
Public vs. Private Use of Reason
The difference between private and public use of reason can be seen in the case of a master (priest).
The Unacceptability of Restricting Thought
But the thought in our encyclopedia is excessive. All that is being taken to reduce it, we cannot accept, even if it comes from legal authorities. This is a crime against the next generations.
The Role of the King and Religious Freedom
A popular desire to help the king, or the desire to accept or assume, cannot be decided. No one’s private religious beliefs should be interfered with, as this would become a form of despotism.
Are We Living in an Enlightened Age?
We wonder if this is our sense of time. An illustrated thought comes from the encyclopedia, along with the spirit of the revolution, and even brought by Frederick II.
Religious Affairs and the Prince
The prince is illustrated with religious affairs, except to try to keep this crudeness. He requires illustrations and religious accounts to think freely without fear.
The Path to Freedom and Human Dignity
This illustration is a way of thinking that human beings have not been released from. There is no pioneer for this, and the thoughts of the Republican Constitution are to be used without restrictions.
But the shadows that do not play scare us. Human dignity is due to illustrations, allowing oneself to think on his own, his own self to think that the people of his own, thus making a huge change.