Q0066
“Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own understanding!” — Immanuel Kant (An Answer to the Question: What…)
Verified English quotation. Primary source: An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?. Theme: courage.
English
Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own understanding!
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? and files it under Critical Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) spent nearly his entire life in Königsberg, rising from tutor to professor at the university there. After early scientific and metaphysical essays, the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787) launched his “critical” philosophy.
Interpretation
Kant's answer to "What is Enlightenment?" identifies it with a kind of courage rather than a body of knowledge. His claim is that most people remain dependent not from lack of capacity but from unwillingness to judge for themselves, and that the exit is simply to begin. He is careful to distinguish the public use of reason, which should be free, from the private use within an assigned role, where obedience may be required. The definition is thus also a political claim.
Why it matters
The diagnosis is uncomfortable because it does not blame ignorance. The obstacle he names is the unwillingness to accept the exposure that judging for oneself involves.
Concepts in this quote
- Courage
- Courage is the virtue of facing fear without abandoning judgment—central to ethics from Aristotle to modern existential resolve.
- Reason
- Reason is the capacity to give and assess reasons—central to logic, science, ethics, and public argument.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Immanuel Kant. (n.d.). Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own understanding! In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0066
MLA: Immanuel Kant. “Dare to know! Have the courage to use….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0066.
Chicago: Immanuel Kant. “Dare to know! Have the courage to use….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0066.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “Dare to know! Have the courage to use…”?
The passage is attributed to Immanuel Kant, An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?. The archive attributes this English wording to An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? and files it under Critical Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Immanuel Kant mean by courage?
Philosophers ask whether courage is fearlessness or right action amid fear, and how it relates to recklessness, endurance, and moral courage in public life. This passage enters that discussion through courage, reason.