An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (Kant 1784)

In this essay, Immanuel Kant defines Enlightenment as "man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity" and states the motto of Enlightenment as: "Have courage to use your own understanding!"  Kant believed that the problem confronting the modern age was that individuals lacked the courage to think independently and called for the inclination for free thinking.

Several questions arise from reviewing this essay:

(1) What are the Enlightenment values?

(2) Why is it so difficult for men to overcome intellectual immaturity?

(3) Is Kant's optimisim about the age of enlightenment justified?

(4) Should there be a difference between private and public use of reasoning?
(5) Do postmodernism and modernism share the same deep impulse to libertate the human spirit from intellectual and cultural constraints? Is it possible to achieve this goal?

(6) Can the use of socratic practice in the learning experience help the Enlightenment values to flourish?

To read the text, see:

http://www.sapere-aude.at/What%20is%20Enlightenment.pdf