Sapere Aude: “dare to know”
is also loosely translated as “dare to be wise”
or perhaps even more loosely, “dare to think for yourself”
Now Kant used this as his motto… what he meant was that a person
was to think for themselves and not allow, as previous generations did,
to allow others to think for you… for example, authorities like Plato, the church,
documents like the bible……. Kant wanted a person to think for themselves
and become self directed… this self directed is very important to Kant…
we are supposed to be self directed which for Kant meant to obey one’s
personal duties… for Kant, above all other aspects, he believed in
following one’s own personal duties…for example, when he said this…
“Two things awe me most, the starry sky above
and the moral law within me”
that was about one taking ownership of their own personal duties…
and the Kantian idea of
“living your life as thou your every act were
to become a universal law”…
this too is about the duties that Kant felt were a part of every human’s life…
but this self direction… what direction was it to take?
for example, we are instructed to self direct ourselves toward
some goal, to be happy or to find wisdom or to gain knowledge
to be rich… to discover some self directed goal which is not
based on what authorities like Aristotle or the church or the bible,
meant for you to base as personal goals…we are to discover our
own personal directions or goals, to be self directed…
it is in this self direction that was the basis for what Kant wrote…
are you self directed or do you base your goals upon authorities
or upon the church or upon text like the bible?
now if you think about life in general, most of life is driven by
desires, wants, needs… as animals, we have drives, such as food, water, shelter, to procreate,
clothes and as human beings, we want to be social, we want love and to love,
we want freedom and some want security…… these needs are the higher needs
of being human… these drives are drives based on specific human needs
and not about the animal drives that all life has…
the forces of evolution has “created” in us, certain drives which allowed
the human species to grow and thrive…we are driven by evolution as human
beings to have certain inalienable drives…now some may differ as to what
those inalienable drives are… be it love or be it the search for god or be it
security or life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness………
we can call these drives, self directed drives… but I am not sure they
are self directed as much as evolutionary drives which are by their very
nature, uncontrollable… for example, the drive to procreate is a strong
and powerful human drive that drives much of human behavior and goals
and energy…… much of what we do is based on this evolutionary drive we
have little or no control over…………we cannot count this as being self directed…
so what Kant is saying is that the search for freedom is one such self directed
goal which can be the basis of our actions and behaviors and energy…
we can have other drivers of behaviors and actions and we have mentioned
some of them, security and love and being social are all possible drives we
humans have…
personally, I have a drive for understanding and wisdom… my drive used
to be for knowledge but I learned that knowledge is not necessarily
the basis for wisdom… we can know things, have knowledge and still not
be wise… we can have understanding which is different then knowledge…….
and I want to understand and have wisdom…
at my age when most people are just sitting around and watching tv, I am
spending my days reading and studying philosophy in hopes of some day,
perhaps, maybe I might become just a little bit wiser and have some more
understanding… I am self directed… to achieve a goal which most people
attempt, if at all, when they are much, much younger……. old people like me
are suppose to be past such nonsense like philosophy… but here I am…
and here I shall remain…… for I am driven to pursue wisdom and understanding…
so when asked, what are you driven to do?
when challenged to “Sapere Aude”… dare to know…
what do you dare to know?
do you dare to be wise?
do you dare to think for yourself?
what have you self directed yourself to do?
Kropotkin