If we talk about the 18th century, memories of other times quickly come to mind. High school, high school, history classes. Some key words also appear: light, reason, Illustration. This is, according to the philosopher Víctor Ballesteros Sánchez-Molina, the trinity under which we must analyze everything that happened in this century that brought us, among other things, the Encyclopediathe steam engine or the French Revolution.

Among its most notable authors, there is no doubt that one of those who remains most relevant today is Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher. In one of his most famous works, What is illustration?Kant writes ‘sapere aude’citing the Roman poet Horace, who centuries ago had given shape to that powerful thought that made us what we are, and that could transform us again into something better.

Under the layer of pessimism

Immanuel Kant receives the news of the French Revolution and the independence of the American colonies with a kind of bitter excitement. As the philosopher Víctor Ballesteros explains to us in his book The thought life“celebrated the moral progress that those revolutions could bring to the French or American people,” but in his texts he warned his readers of the importance of not focusing on the identity of power, but on its form. Kant believed that the people had to be free, and could only be free through knowledge.

His reasoning is easy to follow in the present moment. Kant defended with his ‘sapere aude’ that humanity needed to develop the ability to think“so that reason would decide what to accept as true and what to refute,” writes Ballesteros. “In short, think for ourselves so that others do not think for us.”

But what is hidden behind these two Latin words? One of the phrases that has most revolutionized the history of humanity. ‘Sapere aude‘ means ‘Dare to learn’.

Learn to be free

In the Middle Ages, people were trapped in their lack of culture. Without access to literacywhich allowed them to read and write, with barely any understanding of what they heard in the masses, which were taught almost entirely in a Latin that they no longer spoke, they were condemned to obscurity. Its rulers, much more literate and wise, they could bend his willcontrol it. It is the Enlightenment that puts an end to this process “enlightening” humanity with knowledge.

That is why Kant rescues this Roman quote and launches it into the society of his times. “Dare to learn,” the philosopher launches, convinced that only through learning can we transform ourselveswe can evolve.

This speech undoubtedly resonated in society. We learned, we built an educational system that forged us as people, and we transformed our society until we reached the present. Kant’s speech might already seem unnecessary. Why continue demanding learning in a society in which culture is always just a click away?

However, philosopher Marina Garcés analyzes in her Radical New EnlightenmentKant’s message is once again more urgent than ever.

We need to keep learning

In your Radical New EnlightenmentMarina Garcés leaves us a clear x-ray of the present. The 21st century has caught us lacking tools with which to deal with the future. We speak of the present as the culmination before decadence, we fear that this era of prosperity is coming to an end. We have no future, only an uncertain present. How could Kant help us in a situation like this?

And the answer could be, exactly the same as it did at the time. Because the ‘sapere audeKant’s ‘did not invite man to accumulate information without processing it. On the contrary. He defended that there is no learning without reason, without criticism..

Garcés rescues this idea to leave us a message. There is a possible future, but only if we are open to questioning what, until now, we have accepted without question.

Critical thinking as a lifesaver

The era of fake news He has made something very clear to us: We assume as true everything that our smart box throws at us. We hardly question whether or not what we see in fiction responds to reality, much less to what is presented as true and comes from voices with apparent authority. But we know that not everything we read, not everything we see, not everything we hear, is true.

However, like meek sheep, We have decided to cancel our ability to think. That’s why we have AI. or internet. Ready to offer us tons of information instantly. Whether it is true or not, it seems to be of little importance.

And meanwhile, in the information age, when we have the entire culture of human history in its vast expanse just a click away, we have fallen slaves to new masters. Manipulating 21st century society seems almost as easy as manipulating medieval society.. We are falling back into the darkness of the old regime. “We have become servants of culture without fully understanding what to do with the culture that had emancipated us,” Ballesteros writes in his book.

That’s how it is. If in the past we were blinded by the absence of information, Now we choose blindness by not passing culture through the filter of reason. From criticism. That is why both Garcés and Ballesteros, both philosophers of our times, throw humanity one last lifeline: critical thinking.

The word criticism, both authors explain, comes from krineinwhich means ‘to separate’ and ‘to split’. The task of the critic is therefore to separate the real from the false.. “Forcing the traveler to stop when the day is over, before he gets lost in the darkness,” writes Garcés, to “observe this digestion of our knowledge,” leaving “much less to read and much more to collect.”

It is no longer about reading, watching movies, exposing ourselves to culture without rhyme or reason. But to do it from a critical perspective, learning and allowing learning to transform us.. Because that, philosophers affirm, is the lifeline that remains for humanity, and that continues to be collected in the ‘sapere aude’ of Kant.