Contractualism, Enlightenment and Kant

Period: ~1650–1800 | Context: construction of the philosophical foundations of the modern State; triumph of reason as universal criterion; critique of metaphysics and foundation of epistemology

Part I — Contractualism

Contractualism is the theory according to which the State and political bonds derive from a social contract among individuals, who relinquish part of their natural liberty in exchange for security and order. Each author diverges on the state of nature, the contract, and the resulting type of sovereignty.

1. Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)

Context: English Civil War; Leviathan published in 1651.

State of Nature

• Man is naturally selfish and competitive
• “Homo homini lupus” — man is wolf to man
• State of nature = war of all against all (bellum omnium contra omnes)
• Life in this state: “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”

The Contract

• Men, through reason, perceive the necessity of a sovereign who guarantees peace
• Each individual cedes all his rights to a sovereign (individual or assembly) in exchange for security
• Once the contract is made, there is no right of resistance — the sovereign is absolute

Sovereignty

• Absolute and indivisible: the sovereign stands above civil laws (but not natural ones)
• The State = Leviathan: “that mortal god to which we owe, under the Immortal God, our peace and defense”

References

• Leviathan (1651); De Cive (1642); De Corpore (1655)

2. John Locke (1632–1704)

(See also 07_rationalism_empiricism.md)

State of Nature

• Relatively peaceful; governed by natural law (reason)
• Inalienable natural rights: life, liberty, and property

The Contract

• Men create the State to protect their natural rights (especially property)
• Government is based on the consent of the governed

Limits of sovereignty

• If government violates natural rights, the people have the right to revolution (right of resistance)
• Direct influence on the American (1776) and French (1789) revolutions
• Separation of powers: legislative (supreme) + executive/federative

References

• Two Treatises of Government (1689)

3. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)

State of Nature

• Man in the natural state is a “noble savage” — good and free
• Society and private property corrupt man
• “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” — opening of the Social Contract

The Contract

• The legitimate contract must express the general will (volonté générale) — not the sum of particular wills, but the common good
• In obeying the general will, the individual obeys himself — civil liberty

Education and Infancy

• Emile: education must follow the child’s nature; not impose social conventions prematurely
• The child is naturally good; the educator must create conditions for natural flourishing

Critique of the Enlightenment

• Rousseauian paradox: reason and the progress of arts and sciences do not make man happier — they corrupt morals
• Praise of sentiment and natural moral conscience

References

• The Social Contract (1762); Emile, or On Education (1762); Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts (1750); Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755)

Part II — The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment (18th century) is the movement that trusts in the power of reason to liberate man from superstition, fanaticism, and ignorance — exit from “immaturity” (Kant). Center: France; radiation: all of Europe and the Americas.

Voltaire (1694–1778)

• Fierce critique of the Church, religious intolerance, and fanaticism
• “Écrasez l’infâme!” (Crush the infamous! — religious superstition)
• Defends tolerance, critical reason, and institutional reform
• Satire on Leibnizian optimism in Candide (1759) — critique of the “best of all possible worlds”
• Works: Candide, Treatise on Tolerance, Philosophical Dictionary

Montesquieu (1689–1755)

• Separation of three powers: executive, legislative, judicial
• “To prevent the abuse of power, it is necessary that, by the arrangement of things, power checks power”
• Political relativism: laws must adapt to the climate, customs, and history of each people
• Works: The Spirit of Laws (1748); Persian Letters (1721)

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) and D’Alembert (1717–1783)

• Organizers of the Encyclopedia (Encyclopédie, 1751–1772): synthesis of Enlightenment knowledge; instrument of critique of religion and absolutism; 28 volumes

Part III — Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)

The greatest synthesis of modern philosophy. Kant attempts to unite rationalism and empiricism, establish science and limit metaphysics, and establish morality on autonomous rational bases.

Kant’s Four Questions

1. What can I know? → Critique of Pure Reason (epistemology and metaphysics)
2. What must I do? → Critique of Practical Reason + Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (ethics)
3. What am I permitted to hope? → Religion within the Bounds of Mere Reason + Philosophy of History
4. What is the human being? → Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View

A. Critique of Pure Reason (1781/87)

The Central Problem

Why does metaphysics not have the same success as mathematics and physics? Kant investigates the conditions of possibility of scientific knowledge — the method is transcendental (it does not study objects, but the a priori conditions of their knowledge).

Judgments and Knowledge

• Analytic a priori: necessary, universal, but do not amplify knowledge (tautological)
• Synthetic a posteriori: amplify knowledge, but are contingent
• Synthetic a priori (new Kantian class): necessary, universal and amplify knowledge. They are the key to science — and the central problem: how are they possible?

Kant’s Copernican Revolution

• Before: the subject knows objects passively
• Kant: the subject imposes its a priori forms on objects — we do not know things as they are in themselves (Ding an sich), but as they appear to us according to our cognitive structures

The Transcendental Structures

Transcendental Aesthetic (sensibility):

• Space and Time are a priori forms of sensibility — they are not in objects, but are conditions of all perception
• A priori foundation of geometry (space) and arithmetic (time)

Transcendental Analytic (understanding):

• 12 Categories a priori of understanding (causality, substance, unity, etc.)
• Understanding structures phenomena according to these categories
• “Concepts without intuitions are empty; intuitions without concepts are blind”

Transcendental Dialectic (reason):

• Reason tends to apply categories beyond possible experience → transcendental illusions
• 3 ideas of reason (limits, not knowledges): soul (paralogisms), world (antinomies), God (ideal of pure reason)
• Metaphysics as science is impossible; God, soul, and freedom cannot be demonstrated or refuted by pure reason

B. Critique of Practical Reason (1788) and Groundwork (1785)

The Categorical Imperative

The moral law is a priori (rational, not empirical) and unconditional. Formulations:

1. Universality: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law”
2. Humanity as end: “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end”
3. Autonomy/Kingdom of ends: “Act according to maxims of a universal legislator in a possible kingdom of ends”

Autonomy and Dignity

• Autonomy: practical reason gives itself the law — does not receive it from outside (heteronomy)
• Dignity: rational beings have absolute value (dignity), not price — they are ends in themselves

The Postulates of Practical Reason

The moral law demands (does not demonstrate, but postulates as conditions of meaning):

1. Freedom: without freedom, the moral law would be absurd
2. Immortality of the soul: moral perfection requires infinite progress
3. Existence of God: so that virtue and happiness can coincide (summum bonum)

C. Critique of Judgment (1790)

• Aesthetic judgment: the beautiful is that which pleases universally without concept; the sublime exceeds the sensible
• Teleological judgment: nature can be thought as if it had purpose (living beings)
• Links the domains of nature (1st Critique) and freedom (2nd Critique)

Synthesis of Kant’s Impact

General References

• Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (trans. Valério Rohden, UFRGS/Vozes); Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (trans. Guido Antônio de Almeida, Discurso); Critique of Practical Reason
• Hobbes: Leviathan (Portuguese trans. Martins Fontes)
• Rousseau: The Social Contract (Portuguese trans. L&PM)
• Reale & Antiseri, History of Philosophy, vols. 3 and 4
• Roger Scruton, Kant
• Otfried Höffe, Immanuel Kant