Immanuel Kant Influence On Individual Identity
History has shown a pattern of increased freedom throughout the generations and it has also led to improvements in individuality and person identity. The Enlightenment with great thinkers, like Immanuel Kant, allowed for individual thinking to become more socially acceptable and expected. The increase in intellectual freedom allowed for commoners to gain more of an individual identity by expanding their knowledge as best as they could according to the ideas of the enlightenment philosophers. The Enlightenment was one of the first societal pushes to increase the intellectual abilities of everyone by increasing the freedom for everyone. A counterexample to the Enlightenment would be the Holocaust, where individual freedoms were stripped from
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Jews as their identity was also taken away from them. The actions of the European nations prove that when people get more freedom, they have more individuality and identity, but as people are oppressed they become more like everyone else and lose identity. One of the first components of identity is the ability to think.
Every person thinks differently and the ability to think critically for oneself for commoners was highly promoted by Immanuel Kant during the Enlightenment. Before this, commoners still had an identity, but the concept of critical thinking accented people’s identities and made one more unique. Kant believed that every person could and should be expected to think for oneself and make decisions that benefit that individual and society, as a whole. Before the Enlightenment, commoners were often at the mercy of the monarch and the aristocracy of that country. Very rarely did commoners have the option to make decisions for themselves. In fact, many monarchs tried to keep their peasants from thinking for themselves to avoid revolutions, like the French Revolution. The reason for this is because the more one can think for oneself, the more likely a person can realize the fixable problems in one’s live. The monarch was also able to exploit the commoners of a nation and tax them unnecessarily with the common people not knowing how to fix that type of a situation without critically thinking about solving the problem. Kant stated that the “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another” (Mason 33), which means unenlightened people were too immature to see the fixable difficulties in their lives. Living in a nation where the government does not reflect the needs and wants of the common people was a fixable problem only after people thought for themselves and realized that they, individually, mattered and had an identity that should be supported by that
government. The Jewish people, who were imprisoned in concertation camps, lost freedom and, consequently, identity as well. When first arriving to a concentration camp, the prisoners had their names replaced with a number. Something, like a name, that, today, we would consider essential to a person’s identity was immediately taken away from them and replaced with something that is as simple and robotic as a string of numbers. Due to this a person in the camp was constantly reminded that they were nothing more than numbers on a paper and that they were easily dispensable. The camps also attempted to shift the focus of the prisoners away from knowledge and passions that people had before World War 2 and more towards survival. People who were brilliant scientists were not able to use their knowledge whatsoever in the camp and slowly felt isolated from their own identity. The camp stripped people of the ability to embrace their knowledge and occupation and thus their pre-war identity. The Jewish people were forced to think for survival and not as people with identities that are important. As their freedom was stripped from them, the Jewish people became less of a person of an identity and more of a person of uniform. In Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi states that a man, named Elias, who had been in the camp for a long time began to show the ”astuteness of wild animals” and that the camp slowly turned Elias insane. This shows the power of the camp and the focus of the prisoners in them to adapt away from the people they once were in order to survive. History has shown that freedom and identity is correlated through the enlightenment and the Holocaust. The Enlightenment promoted free thinking and self-improvement for all people, rather than the aristocracy and the monarchy. Commoners were encouraged to think for themselves and to think about would be the best decision to make, rather than blindly following rules set before them. The Holocaust demonstrated what happens when people lose freedom. As the Jewish people lost more and more freedom, the less identity they had. Normal necessities in a present society, like a name, was stripped from people in concentration camps. History has shown the reliance identity has on freedom and how important an identity is to a person.
Jews as their identity was also taken away from them. The actions of the European nations prove that when people get more freedom, they have more individuality and identity, but as people are oppressed they become more like everyone else and lose identity. One of the first components of identity is the ability to think.
Every person thinks differently and the ability to think critically for oneself for commoners was highly promoted by Immanuel Kant during the Enlightenment. Before this, commoners still had an identity, but the concept of critical thinking accented people’s identities and made one more unique. Kant believed that every person could and should be expected to think for oneself and make decisions that benefit that individual and society, as a whole. Before the Enlightenment, commoners were often at the mercy of the monarch and the aristocracy of that country. Very rarely did commoners have the option to make decisions for themselves. In fact, many monarchs tried to keep their peasants from thinking for themselves to avoid revolutions, like the French Revolution. The reason for this is because the more one can think for oneself, the more likely a person can realize the fixable problems in one’s live. The monarch was also able to exploit the commoners of a nation and tax them unnecessarily with the common people not knowing how to fix that type of a situation without critically thinking about solving the problem. Kant stated that the “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another” (Mason 33), which means unenlightened people were too immature to see the fixable difficulties in their lives. Living in a nation where the government does not reflect the needs and wants of the common people was a fixable problem only after people thought for themselves and realized that they, individually, mattered and had an identity that should be supported by that
government. The Jewish people, who were imprisoned in concertation camps, lost freedom and, consequently, identity as well. When first arriving to a concentration camp, the prisoners had their names replaced with a number. Something, like a name, that, today, we would consider essential to a person’s identity was immediately taken away from them and replaced with something that is as simple and robotic as a string of numbers. Due to this a person in the camp was constantly reminded that they were nothing more than numbers on a paper and that they were easily dispensable. The camps also attempted to shift the focus of the prisoners away from knowledge and passions that people had before World War 2 and more towards survival. People who were brilliant scientists were not able to use their knowledge whatsoever in the camp and slowly felt isolated from their own identity. The camp stripped people of the ability to embrace their knowledge and occupation and thus their pre-war identity. The Jewish people were forced to think for survival and not as people with identities that are important. As their freedom was stripped from them, the Jewish people became less of a person of an identity and more of a person of uniform. In Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi states that a man, named Elias, who had been in the camp for a long time began to show the ”astuteness of wild animals” and that the camp slowly turned Elias insane. This shows the power of the camp and the focus of the prisoners in them to adapt away from the people they once were in order to survive. History has shown that freedom and identity is correlated through the enlightenment and the Holocaust. The Enlightenment promoted free thinking and self-improvement for all people, rather than the aristocracy and the monarchy. Commoners were encouraged to think for themselves and to think about would be the best decision to make, rather than blindly following rules set before them. The Holocaust demonstrated what happens when people lose freedom. As the Jewish people lost more and more freedom, the less identity they had. Normal necessities in a present society, like a name, was stripped from people in concentration camps. History has shown the reliance identity has on freedom and how important an identity is to a person.