As Immanuel Kant suggests, the Enlightenment was about having "the courage to use one's own understanding", and John Milton's Paradise Lost, Descartes' Meditations and Don Cervantes' Quixote collectively provide examples that both affirm and overturn Kant's proposition. Lucifer from Paradise Lost embodies the Kantian idea of ​​intellectual independence: fighting against the authority of God in order to make one's own decisions and arrive at one's own conclusions. In Meditations, Descartes opposes intellectual conformity while attempting to impose his own on others. In Don Quixote, our knight-errant challenges his self-imposed nonage with his own form of imposition. Together, these works illustrate the diversity of ideas that resulted from people's courageous decisions to use their own understanding. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay In Paradise Lost, Lucifer believes that the Father's exaltation of the Son above himself is unjust and illegitimate, and Lucifer refuses to give up her personal freedom for Him. As a third of the angels join his rebellion, Lucifer criticizes the faithful angels: “I see that most, through laziness, would prefer to serve” (V.166). Lucifer believes that loyalist angels suffer from self-imposed nonage, not thinking for themselves but rather submitting their minds to the predilections of the Almighty. The Fallen Angel declares in particular: “It is better to reign in hell than to serve in paradise” (I.263). Throughout the epic poem, Lucifer cherishes and idolizes his free will, which he interprets as freedom from the authority or even direction of others. Referring to his perception of the Son's unjust exaltation of himself while in Hell, Lucifer exclaims: "Here we can rule in safety, and my choice to rule is worth ambition, even in Hell” (I.261-62). As seen here, Lucifer adheres to a set of values ​​that is much more idealistic than practical, which fuels his drive to make bold, even courageous, decisions. In this way, Milton's Lucifer embodies certain Enlightenment traits; however, it hardly represents the Enlightenment as a whole, at least in a purist sense. In many ways, Lucifer's mind still operates according to a self-imposed nonage, confusing free will with freedom and forging his hellish realm into a perverted image of God's. His rebellion against God was only possible because of the free will God gave him and the other angels; in a sense, the Almighty gave Lucifer the ability to use his own understanding without the help of others. Loyalist angels understand the consequences of rebellion and choose to accept the Son's authority, a demonstration of their own intellectual independence. Lucifer, however, believes that by submitting to authority, he abandons his ability to reason and exercise self-determination. By allowing his own pride to obscure the difference between free will and freedom, Lucifer imposes a form of self-denial, his pride guiding his understanding of the situation. Additionally, in his quest to establish his own rule in Hell, Lucifer parodies Hell outside of Heaven, hosting complex palaces, a hierarchy of demonic authority, and a satanic throne on which to rule. Lucifer states: "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven out of hell, a hell out of heaven" (I.254-55), and to achieve this he literally attempts to make a " heaven from hell.” Just as Lucifer is imperfect in the Hellenic sense, he is also an imperfect representation of the Enlightenment. As Lucifer became Satan – or “tempter..