PHL 333 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Neurosis
19 Jun 2018
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PHL333
Lecture 7
Kant’s Essay
- Humans are naturally progressing and human history must be perceived as a procession
regardless of wars, fights etc. the movement is to greater autonomy, freedom, and
rationality
- Nature has made us in such a way to force us to determine our own lives
- Humans are peculiar because nature makes animals complete and have all capacities they
need to live their lives- fully grown ape is a product of nature’s development and does not
need anything besides its natural instincts to get by in life- apes don’t have to invent or
stop and reflect on situations to survive
- When it comes to human nature, nature left us in a way incomplete so we don’t have the
natural capacities to fully exist as humans- nature puts us in a situation where we have to
take it upon ourselves to shape the way of our lives- nature gives us the capacity to do
that but gives us the capacity to do it ourselves
- Nature doesn’t give armadillos the capacity to do it their self- nature made it compete but
not humans
- Humans are relatively pathetic in terms of our instinctual capabilities
- Humans don’t even have fur to protect us from the environment, we have to make our
own clothes- we don’t have healthy food made for us we have to do the research and
figure it out, we have to make weapons to kill animals to make up for the fact that
otherwise we would be crushed
- Nature says we event have to develop our own pleasures
- Nature also included conflict as an essential feature of human life
- Conflict is not something we can easily do away with, we would not have developed the
inherit natural capacity to harmony without conflict
- I think my life is important to me, I am going to favour it and put myself first, if you do it
too then it is a conflict
- Not good to have features that make us asocial but
- Living in a domain of perfect concord and mutual love sounds ideal on the surface
- I do my fishing and trade with you for your wheat and we talk and go home and think life
is good- sounds nice but if we lived in that way all human talents would stay hidden in a
dormant state, that life would be very close to a natural, instinctual life with not a whole
lot of rationality and would be peaceful if that happened but comes at huge sacrifice
mainly the lack of human development, there would be sides of our nature not developed,
would not be worthwhile
- When we take it on our self to shape our own life we give it worth
- Armadillos do the same success and achievements as every other armadillos, but if a
generations of humans creates an invention that is passed on to other generations then
they gave life some worth and invented something no other species can do
- For armadillos nothing significant happens, nothing is developed just as living in a
domain of perfect concord
- The thing that makes them stand out is it first came to be by nature and instinct but the
progress is towards a species that determines what shape life takes and uses freedom to
determine it
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- Armadillos are doing the same thing they did for the past 100 years but humans have
developed and that is a result of freedom, they came largely from our own rational and
thinking which nature doesn’t give us
- Kant would not say our ultimate aim is happiness but rather autonomy, living life on our
own terms rather than what nature does
- Our life is currently determined by nature- trying to find a cure for cancer, protect us
from natural forces- we are constantly trying to perfect that
- If you’re going to be religious, your religion must be rational- do not obey a law church
told you because church told you but because it is rational too
- Over and above our control of nature, medical science etc. the greatest problem we face
is coming up with a human society that is just, a society governed by force or natural
power vs. a society governed by rule of law and justice- someone punching you and
saying give me your money that is force, if society was ruled by force that would compel
others to do what they want to do which is instinct and nature ruling, determining our
life- muscles, desire to take my property is governing force- assertion of natural power
over one another
- When cops are called and bring the one in the wrong to justice, natural event of two
beings defined by force are turned into a situation where society as a whole takes it up
and decides what is just about it
- Takes natural event and turns it to an event under our control, we decide what happens
- We are committed to a principle of fairness rather than strong one wins, hard to govern
this because we want greatest possible freedom consistent with law and order- challenge
is to find law and order and combine that with greatest freedom
- 6th proposition- as soon as you have complex social life their needs to be a ruler, someone
administrating law and order decided, we all want law but secretly do not want law to
apply to us and that is the main motivation to commit crime- I want laws there but in my
case I am going to make an exception
- If we all had laws and there was an honour code, no enforcement than society would not
oblige because you need someone to make laws and someone to enforce it
- The person to make these laws need to be found in human species but this master also
needs a master
- Who’s going to be the mayor of your mayor to make sure mayor doesn’t abuse power,
and who is going to be mayor of that mayor and so on- that’s the problem, have
government you trust but they are oriented by nature to favour their own interests
- Inescapable nature of human life is masters favouring their own interests first
- We need a sovereign and sovereign must stop here, you think it is unfair? Too bad, stops
here- final court of appeal cannot keep appealing
- Needs to be a point where decision is made and it is final otherwise you will be wrapped
up in conflict
- There is a problem internally of how to find a government that will create ways in which
rulers are kept in check and that’s what we do- keep judiciary separate from executive so
they can keep each other on check, can try a politician in court and politician has to be
separate from court- Kant seems to suggest you cannot escape that
- a perfect solution to that governmental problem is impossible- we’re fundamentally
imperfect so prospect of us achieving something perfect seems fundamentally not open to
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Humans are naturally progressing and human history must be perceived as a procession regardless of wars, fights etc. the movement is to greater autonomy, freedom, and rationality. Nature has made us in such a way to force us to determine our own lives. Nature doesn"t give armadillos the capacity to do it their self- nature made it compete but not humans. Humans are relatively pathetic in terms of our instinctual capabilities. Nature says we event have to develop our own pleasures. Nature also included conflict as an essential feature of human life. Conflict is not something we can easily do away with, we would not have developed the inherit natural capacity to harmony without conflict. I think my life is important to me, i am going to favour it and put myself first, if you do it too then it is a conflict. Not good to have features that make us asocial but.
