11/17/2009 Kant Lecture Notes #4 Page - 1 of 5 Last time we ended talking about Kants justification for Republic governments.

. A priori Idea of a social contract It is impossible to find any refutation or confirmation through any empirical means of the social contract. What Kant has in mind of the Idea is a special kind of social contract, it is established by a priori reason, reason thinking about conceptual matters, seeking universal, necessary, unconditional truth, which cannot be provided by experience EVER! They are legitimate if used in a cautious narrow, restricted way for only practical purposes. This is part of what Kant means by practical reason, reason used to guide us in determining how to act and how to live. Ideas are admissible only in terms of acting and living. When it comes to theoretical reason Ideas are not allowed in any sense, the goal with theoretical reason is to know for the sake of knowing, we need to be able to test these ideas to discover whether or not they really are true. Some Ideas: God, the immortal soul, mans teleological nature, the hypothetical social contract, unified wealth(hypothetical). Teleology the plan of nature for mankind, meaning that human history has a meaning or purpose, it is not simply random. Ideas we are required to use for practical purposes. What would people agree to if they where able to discuss, debate, etc on all topics assuming we could remove all impediments, given enough time, good will, sincerity etc? Kant assumes that it is not simply about matters of theoretical reason, but also practical reason that human beings can hope for agreement. Unified will Is the will of all citizens, because all rational beings have the ability to think about happiness, their goals in life, what laws they want, and so on Hypothetically Kant claims citizens should be able to agree on one set of values or political beliefs. The legislation that the ruler ought to enact is the legislation that the people would want to see enacted if they where able to discuss long enough to overcome their differences and come to a conclusion on any issue involving action, values, life, and the like. Theoretical truths are eternal, unchangeable, they are fixed. But practical truths are highly relative to situations regarding points in history, cultural differences, and the like. What Kant argues is that the test of any civilization is whether or not all citizens could eventually agree to it if they where able to overcome their differences. This is the test of legitimacy. Any state is legitimate because it is better than the state of nature, this is a Hobbsian legacy that Kant accepts.

11/17/2009 Kant Lecture Notes #4 Page - 2 of 5 P.99-100 He claims that reason demands more than that humans live in any state but that they live in a just state promoting their civil and political freedoms. The just state which Kant argues for involves the idea of a social contract (binding together everyone into some form of society with political power.) Not all states are morally equal, a just state is one promoting civil and political freedoms. a. civil and political freedoms b. hypothetical test of the state Do the laws promote the freedoms that the people actually want, sometimes the people are unenlightened for whatever reason and do choose wrong. Along with the social contract, the just state is one where the laws enacted are ones which the people would agree to under hypothetical conditions. It is a very idealized model. In a way we also follow the same kind of model, think about moral issues we face today. Imagine you and your friends disagree about what is the right position. Why do you disagree? (we dont disagree about 2+2=4, so why do we disagree about values?) Kant argues that they are not, that if people where able to keep on applying reason and weighing different points of view and so on, eventually people ought to converge on one position. Question : Does Kant think people would come to agreement and all move to one side, or compromise? ** Hobbes claims there is no test for genuine revelation like there is for mathematics, with genuine unconditional truth. Religion pluralism use some reason but they ultimately rely on revelation Science, math, logic monism these all use only reason Question : Would Spinoza disagree on religion not having universal value? If you interpret all religious texts the way he interprets the Bible, wouldnt you most likely come to the same result? The purpose of the practical Ideas is simply to help us become more moral, better people etc.. The right of revolution P.94, 99, 126 Rebellion is the greatest possible crime in any state and should be punishable by death. There is no greater crime given the nature of the state, the state is a community of the citizens who agree to the social contract, to protect their lives, property, ability to seek happiness etc So there is no greater way to

11/17/2009 Kant Lecture Notes #4 Page - 3 of 5 undermine the community, because there is no greater way to undermine the ability of the community to exist peacefully. What if you have an unjust ruler The ruler himself ought to be enlightened, it is not just about the citizens being enlightened. The same test of legitimacy applies to the ruler, is he enlightened or is he a despite. Do his laws promote the freedom of the citizens or his own agenda. Is a ruler willing to test his proposed legislation. The ideal is to test legislation against what he thinks the citizens themselves would want. Over the course of history Kant claims more and more states become more enlightened and more just because they promote more freedoms and the will of the people. Distinction between two kinds of politician, the moral politician, and the political moralist. P.118 Kant endorses the moral politician. The moral politician - The ruler should be a moral politician, a moral head of state. The moral politician is someone who over the course of time attempts to make his state conform to what morality dictates, the universal principles, the ones which all human beings ought to share because we have the same power of reason. Historical progress is made primarily by moral politicians, and moral rulers, they attempt to promote enlightenment, political, and social freedoms and so on The political moralist Does the opposite, he changes morality to suite his political agenda. He uses prudence, expediency, and other variable conditional factors to justify legislation and acts of state. This means it cannot be universal but is highly variable and subjective, making it hard for other states and its own citizens to trust it. Slavery, colonialism, sexism Considering these things ran rampant, but the reason they no longer tend to exist by and large, or are being eliminated, is people begin more and more of thinking as Kant recommends. This means the distinction between being practical and being impractical is historically and culturally relative, it is not fixed for all time. This goes back to Kants view of teleology, we ought to except this because it motivates us to aim for utopian standards, the more you aim at the most difficult, or the more you think an aim is achievable the more you will attempt to achieve it. We need to use these a priori universal standards and ideals in order to guide our practices, the more we adopt them, the more enlightened we become, and the more it becomes possible to achieve. P.51 Kant is saying we in a way need to be unrealistic about politics in order to further it, but the political moralist only sees politics in a realistic sense, and not this long reaching idea of enlightenment and striving for goals.

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Typology 1. Nature of politics Conflict among individuals and among states based upon expediency as we saw, and reasons of state, naked power ambitions and so on. 2. Nature of political theory a. The a priori requirements of reason, that we see history teleologically. b. The requirement of reason also a priori, that we choose to follow the universal moral law, the categorical imperative. Kant claims his moral theory is the same as the golden rule. c. The classical view of politics, a political theory must also be moral theory. 3. Causes of politics a. Mans unsocial - scalability b. Mans natural desires, we want fame, fortune, and bitches. We are naturally egoistic as Hobbes also claims c. The lack of enlightenment. 4. The end or goal of politics Promoting natures hidden plan for mankind, by promoting human development. Remember our perfectibility, we are capable of improvement and ought to implement this plan of nature to satisfy what morality dictates anyway. Also the coexistence of republics in a federation meaning a voluntary economic and legal international arrangement, what Kant calls the cosmopolitan agreement. 5. The means to be used by politics to implement the ideals demanded by morality, in order to bring about the ideal political arrangements. a. Obedience to the legitimate authority of the state, you must obey and never revolt. b. The ruler ought to allow you to question his rules, and laws through public reason. This is an attempt to improve the state and to improve society through peaceful gradual reform. Kant proposes evolutionary change. c. Public reason to improve the state and the reasoning of other citizens through debate and discussion d. Through peaceful, incremental reforms, never ever through revolution which is abrupt and dramatic. e. The moral politician, the kind of politician who attempts to realize moral ideals in politics as opposed to the political moralist who attempts to disconnect politics from morality. This cannot be done because it will undermine the state and morality of its members. f. Nature, which is not under our control, but nevertheless Kant argues nature has a plan for mankind promoting our mutual antagonism through our unsocial sociability. As wars become more and more destructive, states become more and more likely to avoid war. Nature does all this behind our backs, whether or not we agree with nature or not. g. Reason to seek peace and live in a state. Force of nature which also promotes peace.

11/17/2009 Kant Lecture Notes #4 Page - 5 of 5 h. Enlightenment in the general sense, do not get confused with E and enlightenment. Just the general sense described in What Is Enlightenment. The use of reason by each citizen. The nature of human beings to be self interested, violent, cooperative, and unsocially sociable. Capable of using reason to guide us in our choice of actions and values to guide us in legislation. Human nature is inseparable from nature as a whole. You cannot separate human nature from natures plan for man. The structure of the best political community It takes the form of a republic, and indirect democracy with representatives, with the advocacy of legal and moral rights for all citizens and the promotions of their freedoms. More over each republic ought to co exist with a multiplicity of other republics in a peaceful international federation, bound together through commerce and agreement on universal moral and political values, for example the values of moral and legal right(Kants overarching term for all the values mandated by reason) and all these values enshrined in the constitution. The fate of politics Is to become increasingly peaceful over time, and increasingly rational over time as politics become more and more governed by reason over time, and not by expediency or colonial ambitions. By following these universal principles of right, people and rulers become more enlightened and more rational with the ultimate result of the ideal becoming real, what seems to be hopelessly utopian and unachievable, over time becomes more and more achievable and is more and more achieved thanks to the historical progress. The fate of political philosophy As Kant argues in the 9th proposition, his own views help nature and human beings to achieve what reason tells us will morally benefit mankind. His own theory tells us how we ought to look at politics, the more we follow his recommendations the more progress we will make because we will be more motivated. Political theory becomes less and less necessary over the course of history as human beings achieve greater and greater political progress.

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