Sapere aude - Wikipedia Sapere aude From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Sapere aude is the Latin phrase meaning "Dare to know"; and also is loosely translated as "Dare to know things", or even more loosely as "Dare to think for yourself!" Originally used in the First Book of Letters (20 BC), by the Roman poet Horace, the phrase Sapere aude became associated with the Age of Enlightenment, during the 17th and 18th centuries, after Immanuel Kant used it in the essay, "Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" (1784). As a philosopher, Kant claimed the phrase Sapere aude as the motto for the entire period of the Enlightenment, and used it to develop his theories of the application of reason in the public sphere of human affairs. In the 20th century, in the essay "What is Enlightenment?" (1984) Michel Foucault took up Kant's formulation of "dare to know" in an attempt to find a place for the individual man and woman in post-structuralist philosophy, and so come to terms with the problematic legacy of the Enlightenment. Moreover, in the essay The Baroque Episteme: the Word and the Thing (2013) Jean-Claude Vuillemin proposed that the Latin phrase Sapere aude be the motto of the Baroque episteme.[1] The phrase is widely used as a motto, especially by educational institutions. Contents 1 Usages 1.1 1st century 1.2 16th century 1.3 18th century 1.4 19th century 1.5 20th century 2 See also 3 References 4 External links Usages[edit] 1st century[edit] Horace The original use of the phrase Sapere aude appears in the First Book of Letters (20 BC), by the Roman poet Horace; in the second letter, addressed to Lolius, in line 40, the passage is: Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet; sapere aude, incipe. ("He who has begun is half done; dare to know; begin!") The phrase is the moral to a story in which a fool waits for a stream to cease flowing, before attempting to cross it. In saying, "He who begins is half done. Dare to know, begin!", Horace suggests the value of human endeavour, of persistence in reaching a goal, of the need for effort to overcome obstacles. Moreover, the laconic Latin of Sapere aude also can be loosely translated as the English phrase "Dare to be wise". 16th century[edit] Philip Melanchthon In his inaugural address as Professor of Greek in Wittenberg on August 29, 1518, Philip Melanchthon quoted Horace's letter.[citation needed] 18th century[edit] Immanuel Kant Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?, by Immanuel Kant. In the essay, "Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" (1784), Immanuel Kant describes the Age of Enlightenment as "Man's release from his self-incurred immaturity"; and, with the phrase Sapere aude, the philosopher charges the reader to follow such a program of intellectual self-liberation, by means of Reason. The essay is Kant's shrewd, political challenge to men and women, suggesting that the mass of "domestic cattle" have been bred, by unfaithful stewards, to not question what they have been told about the world and its ways. Kant classifies the uses of reason as public and private. The public use of reason is discourse in the public sphere, such as political discourse (argument and analysis); the private use of reason is rational argument, such as that used by a person entrusted with a duty, either official or organizational. Skillfully praising King Frederick II of Prussia (r. 1740–86) for his intellectual receptiveness to the political, social, and cultural ideas of the Enlightenment, the philosopher Kant proposes that an enlightened prince is one who instructs his subjects to: "Argue as much as you will, and about what you will, only obey!" It is the courage of the individual man to abide the advice Sapere aude that will break the shackles of despotism, and reveal, through public discourse, for the benefit of the mass population and of the State, better methods of governance, and of legitimate complaint.[2] 19th century[edit] The founder of Homoeopathy, Dr Christian Frederich Samuel Hahnemann used the phrase on the cover of his Organon of Medicine (1810,1819,1824,1829,1833,1922). 20th century[edit] Michel Foucault In response to Immanuel Kant's Age of Enlightenment propositions for intellectual courage, in the essay "What is Enlightenment?" (1984), Michel Foucault rejected much of the hopeful politics proposed by Kant: a people ruled by just rulers; ethical leaders inspired by the existential dare advised in the phrase Sapere aude. Instead, Foucault applied ontology to examine the innate resources for critical thinking of a person's faculty of Reason. With the analytical value of Sapere aude reinforced by the concept of "Faithful betrayal" to impracticable beliefs, Foucault disputed the Enlightenment-era arguments that Kant presents in the essay "Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?" (1784). Like his 18th-century predecessor, Foucault also based his philosophic interpretation of Sapere aude upon a definite practice of critical thinking that is an "attitude, an ethos, a philosophical life in which [is found] the critique of what we are". Such an enlightened, intellectual attitude applies reason to experience, and so effects an historical criticism of "the limits that are imposed on us". The criticism is "an experiment with the possibility of going beyond" imposed limits, in order to reach the limit-experience, which simultaneously is an individual, personal act, and an act that breaks the concept of the individual person.[3] See also[edit] Durham Johnston Comprehensive School, founded in 1901, has Sapere Aude as its motto. Epistularum liber primus, Horace's work containing the original phrase. Lutterworth College, founded in 1880 (as Lutterworth Grammar School), has Sapere Aude as its motto. Manchester Grammar School, founded in 1515, has Sapere Aude as its motto. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, has the motto highlight the school's tradition in groundbreaking fundamental research. Staffordshire University, adopted Sapere Aude as its motto in 2019. University of Otago, New Zealand: the phrase serves as its motto; the students' association replies in kind with its motto "Audeamus" (let us dare) Richmond Hill High School, Ontario, Canada, has this as its motto. West London Free School, London, UK, has this as its motto. References[edit] ^ Jean-Claude Vuillemin, Epistémè baroque: le mot et la chose, Paris, Hermann, coll. "Savoir Lettres," 2013. ^ "ereau.de steht zum Verkauf". sap.ereau.de. ^ "Foucault's Essay, What is Enlightenment?". Foucault.info. Retrieved 2012-03-08. External links[edit] The dictionary definition of sapere aude at Wiktionary v t e Age of Enlightenment Topics Atheism Capitalism Civil liberties Counter-Enlightenment Critical thinking Deism Democracy Empiricism Encyclopédistes Enlightened absolutism Free markets Haskalah Humanism Human rights Liberalism Liberté, égalité, fraternité Methodological skepticism Nationalism Natural philosophy Objectivity Rationality Rationalism Reason Reductionism Sapere aude Science Scientific method Socialism Universality Weimar Classicism Thinkers France Jean le Rond d'Alembert René Louis d'Argenson Pierre Bayle Pierre Beaumarchais Nicolas Chamfort Émilie du Châtelet Étienne Bonnot de Condillac Marquis de Condorcet René Descartes Denis Diderot Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle Claude Adrien Helvétius Baron d'Holbach Louis de Jaucourt Julien Offray de La Mettrie Georges-Louis Leclerc Gabriel Bonnot de Mably Sylvain Maréchal Jean Meslier Montesquieu Étienne-Gabriel Morelly Blaise Pascal François Quesnay Guillaume Thomas François Raynal Marquis de Sade Anne Robert Jacques Turgot Voltaire Geneva Firmin Abauzit Charles Bonnet Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui Jean-Louis de Lolme Pierre Prévost Jean-Jacques Rousseau Antoine-Jacques Roustan Horace Bénédict de Saussure Jacob Vernes Jacob Vernet Germany Justus Henning Böhmer Carl Friedrich Gauss Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Gottfried von Herder Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel Wilhelm von Humboldt Immanuel Kant Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Moses Mendelssohn Samuel von Pufendorf Friedrich Schiller Christian Thomasius Gabriel Wagner Christian Felix Weiße Christoph Martin Wieland Thomas Wizenmann Christian Wolff Greece Neophytos Doukas Theoklitos Farmakidis Rigas Feraios Theophilos Kairis Adamantios Korais Ireland George Berkeley Robert Boyle Edmund Burke John Toland Italy Cesare Beccaria Gaetano Filangieri Ferdinando Galiani Luigi Galvani Antonio Genovesi Francesco Mario Pagano Giovanni Salvemini Pietro Verri Giambattista Vico Netherlands Balthasar Bekker Pieter de la Court Petrus Cunaeus Hugo Grotius François Hemsterhuis Christiaan Huygens Adriaan Koerbagh Frederik van Leenhof Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Bernard Nieuwentyt Baruch Spinoza Jan Swammerdam Hendrik Wyermars Poland Tadeusz Czacki Hugo Kołłątaj Stanisław Konarski Ignacy Krasicki Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz Stanisław August Poniatowski Jędrzej Śniadecki Stanisław Staszic Józef Wybicki Andrzej Stanisław Załuski Józef Andrzej Załuski Portugal Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo Romania Ion Budai-Deleanu Dinicu Golescu Petru Maior Samuil Micu-Klein Gheorghe Șincai Russia Catherine II Denis Fonvizin Mikhail Kheraskov Mikhail Lomonosov Nikolay Novikov Alexander Radishchev Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova Serbia Dositej Obradović Avram Mrazović Spain José Cadalso Charles III Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro Leandro Fernández de Moratín Valentin de Foronda Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos Martín Sarmiento Diego de Torres Villarroel United Kingdom (Scotland) Joseph Addison Francis Bacon James Beattie Jeremy Bentham Joseph Black Hugh Blair James Boswell James Burnett, Lord Monboddo Anthony Collins Adam Ferguson Edward Gibbon Robert Hooke David Hume Francis Hutcheson Samuel Johnson John Locke John Millar Isaac Newton William Ogilvie Richard Price Joseph Priestley Thomas Reid Shaftesbury Adam Smith Dugald Stewart Mary Wollstonecraft United States Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson James Madison George Mason Thomas Paine Category v t e Michel Foucault Books Mental Illness and Psychology (1954) Madness and Civilization (1961) The Birth of the Clinic (1963) Death and the Labyrinth (1963) The Order of Things (1966) This is Not a Pipe (1968) The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969) Discipline and Punish (1975) The History of Sexuality (1976–2018) Essays, lectures, dialogues and anthologies Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (1964) "What Is an Author?" (1969) Foucault's lectures at the Collège de France I, Pierre Riviere, Having Slaughtered my Mother, my Sister and my Brother (1973) Language, Counter-Memory, Practice (1977) Sexual Morality and the Law (1978) Herculine Barbin (1978) Power/Knowledge (1980) Remarks on Marx (1980) Le Désordre des familles (1982) The Foucault Reader (1984) Politics, Philosophy, Culture (1988) Foucault Live (1996) The Politics of Truth (1997) Society Must Be Defended (1997) Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth (Essential Works Volume 1) (1997) Aesthetics, Method, Epistemology (Essential Works Volume 2) (1998) Abnormal (1999) Power (Essential Works Volume 3) (2000) Fearless Speech (2001) The Hermeneutics of the Subject (2001) The Essential Foucault (2003) Psychiatric Power (2003) Security, Territory, Population (2004) The Birth of Biopolitics (2004) The Government of Self and Others (2008) The Courage of Truth (2009) Lectures on the Will to Know (2011) On the Government of the Living (2012) Subjectivity and Truth (2012) Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling (2013) On the Punitive Society (2015) Concepts Anti-psychiatry Author function Biopolitics Biopower Carceral archipelago Cultural imperialism Disciplinary institution Discontinuity Discourse analysis Dispositif Ecogovernmentality Episteme Genealogy Governmentality Heterotopia Interdiscourse Limit-experience Parrhesia Power (social and political) Postsexualism Sapere aude Influence Cogito and the History of Madness (Derrida) Foucauldian discourse analysis Foucault (Deleuze) The Passion of Michel Foucault (Miller) Giorgio Agamben Gary Gutting Thomas Lemke James Miller Paul Rabinow Claude Raffestin Nikolas Rose Related articles Bibliography Foucault–Habermas debate Chomsky–Foucault debate Daniel Defert François Ewald Alan Sheridan Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sapere_aude&oldid=995424253" Categories: Latin words and phrases Latin mottos Enlightened absolutism Horace Hidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from November 2017 Articles containing French-language text Articles containing Hebrew-language text Articles containing Latin-language text Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages العربية Català Čeština Deutsch Eesti Emiliàn e rumagnòl Español Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 Hrvatski Italiano עברית ქართული Latina Nederlands Norsk bokmål Polski Português Română Русский Sardu Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 20 December 2020, at 23:38 (UTC). 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