Which Freedom? Whose Maturity?

A.C Grayling, founder of The New College of the Humanities, says the enlightenment is the conviction that “the unfettered exercise of reason can save humanity by ending the ignorance and superstition that impedes progress and keeps tyrants in power” (The Mystery of Things A.C Grayling p. 91). Immanuel Kant’s short essay, “What is the Enlightenment?” gives a good synopsis of the impulse that remains the driving force to much of our culture, including, perhaps, Professor Grayling’s new school. Kant tells us that being grown up, mature people means we are free to abandon external authority and think for ourselves, be truly autonomous. But how do we know when we are free?Kant writes that freedom is the pre-condition for enlightenment,…