people Kant think for themselves

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a people thrive by obeying their national authority. However, they can succeed even more with an education, which is what the Enlightenment was trying to provide. When a people fight for their freedom, it is either justified that they do so or unjust that their liberty was ever taken away in the first place. Every person has the ability to think for themselves, and society has no right to hinder this ability. Social order is a basic right for all humans, yet it does not stem from nature but from human conventions.

Immanuel Kant was also a fan of the Enlightenment. In Enlightenment and Revolution, he encouraged people to think for themselves. He urged people to free themselves from their self-incurred tutelage. By this he meant that man is plagued by a lack of resolution and courage, not by a lack of reason. Man must overcome this in order to make use of his understanding of the world.
Ex) Becky very often knows the answer to Mr. Yarnall's questions, but just never feels like answering or else she would have to explain her reasoning- a very tedious job.

Kant also recognized that it is natural for a person to take external direction as a child, but as an adult, that person should be able to rely on his or herself. Many people continue to rely on others, due to their own laziness and cowardice.

The third paragraph discusses how kings made the people rely on them for everything and made them feel as if they couldn't function without someone telling them what to do. People have the tendency to give up after trying and failing once. It is much easier to get someone to do something for you than it is to do it yourself.

However, Kant recognized that not everyone in society could afford to spend time expanding their minds. Their was a difference between the public and the masses. The poor were to focused on bread-and-butter issues to fully take part in the Enlightenment. Similar to the Renaissance was that the Enlightenment took place mostly in the upper class.

According to Kant, laws are the shackles of an everlasting tutelage. These are the same chains that Rousseau was referring to in the beginning of his book. A life of tutelage under laws that tell you what is right and wrong leaves you no room to think of yourself.
For years, no one questioned the long-held belief that the earth was the center of the universe because if they did, they would be committing treason against the church. People believed that the church and the authorities were always right, even though they never showed any evidence to back up their statutes. The Enlightenment's goal was to get people to investigate the world for themselves, and not believe something to be true just because someone says it is. Both Rousseau and Kant talk about throwing and shaking off this yoke of tutelage. They were the rebels of their period, questioning the power of the church, authorities, and government.