202109060833 Sapere Aude

Meaning "Dare to know" or "dare to be wise", sapere aude is a saying originally attributed to to the Roman poet Horace in his Epistularum liber primus (First Book of Letters) from 20 BCE.

Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet; sapere aude, incipe. ("He who has begun is half done; dare to know; begin!".¹)

In this epistle, Horace uses the phrase as the moral of a story of a fool who waits for a stream to stop flowing before attempting to cross it. The phrase suggests the value of human endeavor, persistence, and our need for effort to overcome obstacles.

This phrase was popularized in the 18th century when 202109071212 Immanuel Kant used it in his essay Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment? as a motto for the 202109071219 Age of Enlightenment. In the essay, he challenges readers to follow a program of intellectual self-liberation by means of reason while also implying that the majority of people are unfaithful stewards of our forebears' efforts to lift humanity out of ignorance and immaturity.

This piece of philosophical thought is similar to Socrates's popular phrase 202109071223 The unexamined life is not worth living. Both reflect a hopeful belief that the pursuit of wisdom is a noble cause that can uplift individuals and humanity as a whole.