POL 3102 Lecture : Kant and Enlightenment
11 Apr 2014
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If you"re incapable of reassuring with facts you know, this does not lead to enlightenment: kant: enlightenment consists in the adoption of maxims. When it comes to people, these are useful principles: kant"s a rationalist- it isn"t just about collecting facts. This may be true in theory but does not apply in practice. Any moral whichasks a human being to do something they can"t must be wrong. Kant"s morality is one of pure reason: an ethics of duty. Kant thinks it"s true that if you act morally, you will be happy- good people will generally be happy. One universal factor: the ability to use reason. Since this is the most important thing we share, then this is the ultimate appeal for political theory. Regulative rather than constitutive appeal: this means we cannot derive from human nature to discover laws from all times and places.
