Dare To Know Have The Courage

This is Kant's definition of Enlightenment from his 1784 essay "What Is Enlightenment?" (Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?), published in the Berlinische Monatsschrift. The original Latin motto he invokes — Sapere aude ("dare to know") — comes from the Roman poet Horace and was popular among 18th-century German intellectuals. Kant argued that most people remain in "self-incurred immaturity" not from lack of reason but from lack of courage to use it without another's guidance.