as, unlike the founders of America, Rousseau was not concerned with a real, live, specific historical situation he could to some extent afford to be more theoretical in his orientation. The philosopher Immanuel Kant was even more concerned with the philosophical notions of liberty, but he detached them from their functioning in government and instead was concerned about human being's innate liberty to do morally good or evil actions. Kant saw morality as existing not as something that could be constructed at will by human beings, but as something that existed for all time, and to be commensurate with the categorical imperative, people must act as if setting a law for conduct in an impartial manner for all time. To be free is to do good, and to act as a check upon your own immoral impulses and behaviors. Kant is concerned, as a Christian philosopher, with establishing the freedom of the will. Unlike Rousseau and the "Declaration of Independence" he does not look to nature to establish such freedom:
But freedom is a mere idea, the objective reality of which can in no wise be shown according to laws of nature, and consequently not in any possible experience; and for this reason it can never be comprehended or understood, because we cannot support it by any sort of example or analogy" (Kant, "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals," Part III). Regardless, within our own moral calculus, we must behave as if the will is free: "the hypothesis, however, that the will of intelligence is free, its autonomy, as the essential formal condition of its determination, is a necessary consequence" (Kant, "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals," Part III).
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Kant; Adam Smith Locke: primary qualities, secondary qualities, substance Kant: Judgment of perceptions, judgment of experience, categories of the understanding Explain all six terms above. Does Kant's position (relevant to those terms) different from Locke's? Is Kant (on these terms) able to deal with some of the problems Locke encountered (when using these terms)? According to John Locke, "the primary qualities of objects are their real qualities," such as "solidity, extension, figure,
The difference resides in the use of the vocabulary. Values can not be decided upon in an arbitrary manner. In his Two Treatises of government, Locke states that it is people's very own nature which endows them with rights. Under these circumstances, civil society can be considered to exist before the birth of the state. It is society which guarantees the legitimacy of the state and which guarantees a principle
- these actions are not punished by the law because, while immoral according to many, they do not cause injury to the rights of others. Adam Smith further emphasizes the centrality of property rights. For Smith, the ownership and acquisition of private property is an essential right that contributes to and maintains individual well-being. Individuals who do not own property are individuals with no real say in their own affairs,
Religious Liberty as Stated in the First Amendment Religious Liberty The practical and legal ramifications of religious liberty are not difficult to determine, for they follow from the theological implications of the concept of religious liberty. The idea of religious truth, such as defined by the North Carolina state government in 1776 which forbade anyone from serving who denied the truth of the Protestant religion, has no place in a country
Introduction According to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, there are seven main themes of Catholic Social Teaching: 1) Life and Dignity of the Human Person, which highlights the intrinsic value and goodness of life and the fact that the human person was made in the image and likeness of God and therefore should not be abused or desecrated; 2) Call to Family, Community and Participation, which highlights the idea man
Fichte separate right from morality and is it a good thing? Should they be separated? Fichte's Philosophy of Right and Ethics Why does Fichte separate right from morality and is it a good thing? Should they be separated? Moral and political anxieties animate Fichte's entire philosophy and his perceptions to these issues that are innovative and at times tied together. His responses to Kant's vital philosophy in 1790 was a retaliation to
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