Sapere Aude

Immanuel Kant is commonly considered one of the greatest philosophers to have ever lived. He is credited with advancement in many fields of philosophy, and many of his works are important groundwork for contemporary philosophers. He was an extremely important proponent of the Enlightenment age and wrote in 18th century Prussia (modern day Germany).

(Source: http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/kant.htm)

The enlightenment can be considered one of the most important time periods in recent history. It produced the works of people like Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire. It brought in a generation of relatively free thinking about the world and people in it. Kant was one of these men that made huge developments in knowledge.

Perhaps one of his most famous quotes is "Sapere aude" which is latin for "Dare to know". Kant wants all people to accept this doctrine and truly wish to seize as much knowledge as they possibly can in their every day lives. This idea is manifested in all facets of our life, including social interactions, workplace, and our schooling. This idea of schooling can be either formal (i.e. University) or informal (i.e. self directed, reading).

These are all important environments in which we should dare to know. However, considering my current life, as a student at the University of Michigan, the implications of formal education are most fascinating. A liberal arts education is commensurate with Sapere Aude; while in college we need to learn as much as possible. While searching for this knowledge there must be a desire to learn. This desire should be evident; we ought to want to learn. We should not be forced to learn something or go to class or to read a book, we should naturally want to do these things. By naturally wishing to do them, we commit to truly caring about knowledge. This is truly the best way for us to become knowledgeable about the world around us.

This leads us to the conclusion that we should take a wide range of classes and pursue anything that interests us while we are in college. This is an extremely important time in our lives and it is the optimal time for us pursue anything we want: Chinese, Philosophy, Mathematics, Hogwarts, whatever. Now is not the time to limit ourselves by choosing an overly specific field and focusing solely on it. That sort of thing (limiting ourselves via a specific field) will most likely happen plenty in our life (i.e. jobs).

On the other hand, it is sad that we currently live in a social environment where it is acceptable to watch this:

over 88 million times. (You're welcome.) When, instead, we could be searching for any kind of knowledge that will make us a better individual.

We need to strive to search for knowledge whenever we can, and avoid filling all of our free time with nyan cats. Immanuel Kant would certainly try to convince us to read a book for pleasure, or keep up with world news, or to engage in debates with our peers. These things should be part of our free time in college, especially since it is such a transitional time of our lives.