Enlightenment (Was: A GNU “social contract”?)

[Andreas Enge]

Hello Jean Louis,

On Thu, Nov 07, 2019 at 05:12:38AM +0530, Jean Louis wrote:
> "Social contract" has etymology coming from France,
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract, "In moral and political
> philosophy, the social contract is a theory or model that originated
> during the Age of Enlightenment and usually concerns the legitimacy of
> the authority of the state over the individual.
> 
> Introduction of Rousseau's concepts of social contract represent
> introduction of middle-age French politics into US based, freedom of
> speech based project named GNU.

I invite you to brush up your history, notably with the distinction between
"middle-age" and "enlightenment" (and also think about the distinction between
politics and philosophy; and if you are interested in the USA, you may also
consider the relationship between its creation and enlightenment). This may
sound off-topic, but bear with me for a second. Here is how Kant defines
enlightenment:
   http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html
"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."

In that sense, I understand the last paragraph of our open letter as an
invitation to put enlightenment into practice:
"We think it is now time for GNU maintainers to collectively decide
about the organization of the project." Overcome our nonage, shape
the GNU Project!

Andreas