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The term
“enlightenment” was first coined by Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher. “Sapere
aude” means “dare to know” in Latin. Kant also wrote in this essay, “All
that is required for this enlightenment is freedom; and particularly the
least harmful of all that may be called freedom, namely, the freedom for man
to make public use of his reason in all matters.” In other words, in order to
be “enlightened,” a person had to think independently rather than simply
follow society’s customs and traditions. Thus, the Enlightenment encouraged
free thought (or at least freer and more wide-ranging thought than had
occurred in the recent past).
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