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Hegel concepts of freedom
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Kant sees the state as the result of a contract in which each disclaims natural freedom to enjoy the freedom as a member of the state. Taking the whole idea of the social contract, Kant calls it the original contract. This contract is not a historical fact, and nothing more than an explanation, one version of events, about which we do not have reliable information.
Kant considered the state as "the union of people subordinated to legal laws. Legal categorical imperative is based on a sense of duty and can be summarized as follows: the act is moral only if it is done only with respect to the moral law.
This is Kant who develops a number of fundamental principles of the rule of law: freedom and independence of each member of society as a human
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Kant wrote about the division of power not as a system of checks and balances, but as a clear chain of subordination of all its branches. This subordination and consent of all branches of government, in Kant's opinion, are able to prevent arbitrariness and to ensure the prosperity of the state.
Kant singled autocracy, aristocracy and democracy. However, according to the criterion of separation of powers, he singled out the two forms of government: republican, where there is a separation of powers and the despotic, where they coalesce.
He believed that a republic is a social system in which power means the rule of law, and the latter correspond to the interests of the citizens. Kant himself was a supporter of constitutional monarchy, believing that the autocracy can be a republic, if there legislative and executive branches are clearly defined.
Kant condemns the right of the people to revolt, because all the political changes should take place gradually, through reforms from
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This can be achieved by coercive power. Only state can make the right coercive.
Part of the philosophy of Kant - is the idea of eternal peace. The future development of mankind, he connected with the formation of the world confederation of sovereign republics, where the international legal order based on the principles of equality of peoples, non-interference in the internal affairs of each other. It's kind of a social contract at the national level.
Hegel
Philosopher considered universal freedom as a philosophy of right. According to him, the true freedom has a general (rather than individual) will. Universal freedom requires that the individual's subjective aspirations are subordinated to moral duty, citizen's rights - are correlated with their duties to the state, individual freedom - consistent with the need.
The process of approval of universal freedom, according to Hegel, is the content of world history.
He divided the philosophy of right into 3 sections:
1- Abstract right, which is concerned with the nature of property rights. Persons recognize persons as such and recognize their rights as the rights of
Society’s structure has been debated and contested as far back as ancient Greece. Since then, man has developed social systems that greatly differ from anything the ancients had in mind. One such system is the social contract theory, which first came to prominence around the time of the enlightenment. Simplified, social contractarians argued that in order to achieve a balanced and stable society, all of its members must sacrifice certain liberties to a government or similar authority. As Rousseau explains, the contract begins when “Each of us places his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will” (148). Essentially, it is an agreement between the rulers and the ruled that produces a stable political state. John Locke’s The Second Treatise of Government and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract are both enlightenment works that detail contractarianism, yet each has a unique and different way of considering the social contract. Although John Stuart Mill is also known for his work with Utilitarianism, his essay On Liberty considers consent and other issues relating to contract theory. These authors provide different insights into the social contract, and frequently one will reject another’s idea and offer a new solution. Even after this meshing of ideas and solutions, contract theory falls short of practicality. The idea is appealing, appearing on the surface as a fair and just way of governance. However, true liberty cannot arise from a contract, as man cannot be “forced to be free” (150). There are two fundamental flaws with contractarianism: it is not practical and it ignores human nature, and even if were possible to establish a true contract-based society, the citi...
Categorical imperatives are the basis of morality because they provoke pure reasons for every human beings actions. By the end of his work, one will understand Kant’s beliefs on morality, but to explain this, he goes into depth on the difference between hypothetical imperatives and Categorical Imperative, two different formulations of the Categorical Imperative, and a few examples. According to Kant, there are two types on imperatives, categorical imperatives and hypothetical imperatives. The Categorical Imperative is based on relation and not by means, which hypothetical imperatives are based on.
Kant argued that the Categorical Imperative (CI) was the test for morally permissible actions. The CI states: I must act in such a way that I can will that my maxim should become a universal law. Maxims which fail to pass the CI do so because they lead to a contradiction or impossibility. Kant believes this imperative stems from the rationality of the will itself, and thus it is necessary regardless of the particular ends of an individual; the CI is an innate constituent of being a rational individual. As a result, failure ...
Kant starts by explaining the three divisions of philosophy which are: physics, ethics, and logic. He clarifies that physics and ethics are a posteriori while logic is, a priori, but there is a third variable that interacts both which is also the foundation of morals. This is the categorical imperative or also known as the synthetic a priori. The categorical imperative or the moral law is the reason of individuals’ actions. Kant goes on to say “I should never except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law” (Immanuel Kant, Page14 (line 407-408)). This indicates that an individual should not do anything that is not their own laws or rules that cannot become universal to all individuals. Throughout the Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant defines what categorical imperative is, but also its four distinct articulations.
...o be an unbearable abuse of supreme authority” or in the face of governmental tyranny. However, Kant also outlines in his other work the importance of moral autonomy, which seems to betray his view of a citizen's duty to obey. As Arntzen states: “by denying a right of resistance even when civil society falls short of the ideal civil society, he maintains that one has a duty to act according to a will that is not one's own, and thereby seems to betray the person's autonomy and dignity he has so strongly asserted in GMS and KpV” (Arntzen: 1996). Arntzen then goes on to state that Kant must allow
Kant believed that morality has to be something free and freely controlled by the person taking the moral action excluding consequences because consequences are not controllable. Morality is freely chosen and legislated universal law that any rational being could construct and all rational beings who want to be moral do
In Section One and Section Two of his work. Kant explores his position on his fundamental principle of morality, or his “categorical imperative”, or his idea that all actions are moral and “good” if they are performed as a duty. Such an idea is exemplified when he says, “I should never act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law” (Kant 14). The philosopher uses examples such as suicide and helping others in distress to apply his principal to possible real life situation. Kant is successful in regards to both issues. As a result, it means that categorical imperative can plausibly be understood as the fundamental principle of all morality. Kant’s reasoning for his categorical imperative is written in a way that makes the theory out to be very plausible.
It creates an ideal universal community of rational individuals who can collectively agree on the moral principles for guiding equality and autonomy. This is what forms the basis for contemporary human rights theory, according to Kant. He believes that moral principles are universal, and that all rational human beings are expected to conform to moral reasoning. Therefore, doing the right thing is not driven by the pursuit of individual desires or interests, but by the need to follow a maxim that is acceptable to all rational individuals.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Kant holds an ambiguous position in contemporary literary theory—especially postcolonial theory. On the one hand the Enlightenment project has been seen as universalizing force (with a decidedly Western form of the universal). Said, for example, writes that “Cultural experience or indeed every cultural form is radically, quintessentially hybrid, and if it has been the practice in the West since Immanuel Kant to isolate cultural and aesthetic realms from the worldly domain, it is now time to rejoin them” (“Connecting Empire to Secular Interpretation,” CA 58). On the other hand, John Rawls and others find in Kant’s 1795 essay “On Perpetual Peace” grounds for thinking Kant provides an antidote to colonization and an effective vision for order between nations. Is it that Kant has been understood correctly by one side, misunderstood by another? Or is it that Kant’s project contains both sides to the question of nation and imperialism. I’d like to explore these two sides of the Kantian project a little further.
If we desire X, we ought to do Y. However, categorical imperatives are not subject to conditions. The Categorical Imperative is universally binding to all rational creatures because they are rational. Kant proposes three formulations: the Categorical Imperative in his Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morality, the Universal Law formulation, Humanity or End in Itself formulation, and Kingdom of Ends formulation. In this essay, the viability of the Universal Law formulation is tested by discussing two objections to it, mainly the idea that the moral laws are too absolute and the existence of false positives and false negatives.
The Social Contract is an attempt to explain the reason why individuals agree to form organized governments. The idea that a person is willing to abandon the freedoms previously enjoyed under the State of Nature, in which no government interfered with their pursuits, is believed to correspond to the individual’s attempt to protect what is in their best interest. Under this condition, moral and political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among the people to form the society in which they live. Philosophers who advocated the Social Contract Theory believed that because individuals existed before the government did, governments arose exclusively to meet and satisfy the social and economic needs of the public. Men such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke & Jean-Jacques Rousseau were prominent proponents of this theory.
Who is Kant referring to? I believe Kant was referring to any citizen who is experiencing the tragedy of under power. Under power is characterized by people who have no control of their life and are basically running on autopilot doing whatever their master tells them to do or also following other people’s footsteps, opposite of leaders. Another word for “we” could mean the representation of a yoke. As discussed in the critical thinking portion of class, it came to a consensus that yoke is a metaphor used for a human is shaped.
Of Kant’s definitive articles, Article I states that “The civil constitution of every state should be republican” because such states rest on the rational principles:
One of the biggest threats to a thriving country is a tyrannical government. To prevent this, the Founders declared that the power of the government must be separated. This principle, the Separation of Powers, states that, to prevent tyranny, one governmental branch cannot have supremacy over the country. The power must be divided among three branches. These are the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. The Separation of Powers is of equal importance now as when the Constitution was written because it prevents tyranny.
the original ‘freedom, happiness, equality, and liberty’ were lost in modern civilization. Through the Social Contract, a new social organization (the state) was formed to handle these principles” (Elahi 5). The Social Contract acted as a sort of redemption for humanity that brought man as close to the freedom and equality that existed in the state of nature as possible while also maintaining rules to control the modern society. “Because each individual devotes himself to the social contract entirely, what is happening for one individual is happening for another individual, and so, no one has any interest in making things difficult for everyone….The union is made without reserve, it is as complete as it can be…Each man, by giving himself to everyone, gives himself to no one, and the right others have over himself is matched by his right over them”