What is Enlightenment? (1784)
Regarding 2:<p>&gt;&gt; Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a proportion of men ... It is so easy to be immature. If I have a book to serve as my understanding, a pastor to serve as my conscience, a physician to determine my diet for me, and so on, I need not exert myself at all.  I need not think, if only I can pay: others will readily undertake the irksome work for me.<p>This is beautiful in its simplicity and still has a piece of truth. But a more elaborate modern take would be probably that we also have finite resources. I do believe for instance that the earth surface is spherical, although I cann&#x27;t immediately come up with an argument to prove this. I have not personally traveled around the world in a boat or launched satellites.<p>It seems that there is <i>fundamentally</i> no choice but to trust some people or traditions of thought on some things and then somehow to decide when to start doubting. Which is why fake news is a problem, for instance.