From our class sage, Paulette
Dillard:
According to wikipedia.org, it means "Dare to know" or to "have the
courage to think".
from the latin "audire" - capable of learning, as from
auditory rather then visual or tactile stimulus. Aud usually
associated with "hearing," e.g. audible, audience, audio but
also with daring or taking risks (e.g. audacity/audacious)
Sapere: comes from latin "to be wise" (can also mean "to taste"
or "have a pleasant flavor" - "to be wise or discerning" - this
word is also related to savory, sapien (as in homo sapien" and
sage (wise person, not the herb).
From the Yahoo Group:
Sapere aude is a phrase meaning "Dare to know." or
"Dare
to be wise".
The phrase is found in Kant's essay "What Is Enlightenment?".
Originally Kant wrote in the opening paragraph:
Aufklärung ist der Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner selbst verschuldeten
Unmündigkeit. Unmündigkeit is das Unvermögen, sich seines Verstandes
ohne Leitung eines anderen zu bedienen. Selbstverschuldet ist diese
Unmündigkeit, wenn die Ursache derselben nicht am Mangel des Verstandes,
sondern der Entschließung and des Muthes liegt, sich seiner ohne Leitung
eines andern zu bedienen. Sapere aude! Habe Muth dich deines eigenen
Verstandes zu bedienen! is also der Wahlspruch der Aufklärung.
Translation by an unknown author:
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. This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is
not lack of understanding , but lack of resolution and courage to use it
without the guidance of another. The motto of enlightenment is
therefore: Sapere aude ! Have courage to use your own understanding!
Translation by Lewis White Beck, from Immanuel Kant, On History, ed.,
with an introduction, by Lewis White Beck (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill,
1963), p. 3:
Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage? Tutelage
is man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction
from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in
lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without
direction from another. Sapere aude! "Have courage to use your own
reason!" — that is the motto of enlightenment.
Translation by A.F.M. Willich, from Immanuel Kant, Essays and Treatises
on Moral, Political and Various Philosophical Subjects (London, 1798,
1799); reprinted in Frank E. Manuel, ed., The Enlightenment (Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965), p. 35.
Enlightening is, Man's quitting the nonage occasioned by himself. Nonage
or minority is the inability of making use of one's own understanding
without the guidance of another. This nonage is occasioned by one's
self, when the cause of it is not from want of understanding, but of
resolution and courage to use one's own understanding without the
guidance of another. Sapere aude! Have courage to make use of thy own
understanding! is therefore the dictum of enlightening.
(Nonage = the condition of "not [being] of age" )
Translation by Peter Gay, from Introduction to Contemporary Civilization
in the West, 2 vols., 2nd Ed. (1954), I, 1071; reprinted in Gay, The
Enlightenment: A Comprehensive Anthology (New York: Simon and Schuster,
1973), p. 384.
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is
the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance.
This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of
understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own
mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the
courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the
enlightenment.
Translation by Lyman A. Baker, Instructor of English, Department of
English, Kansas State University
Enlightenment is getting out of the childhood that you've kept yourself
in. Mentally, you're still a minor if you can't use your mind without
having someone else tell you what and how to think. This is your own
fault if the problem is not that you have the bad luck to be retarded or
brain-damaged, but that you just can't make up your own mind, and are
afraid to use your brains without someone else dictating what you think.
Sapere aude! Dare to know! "Have the guts to use your own wits," is thus
the slogan of the Enlightenment.
Return
|
