Kant’s Philosophy: Key Concepts and Political Thought
Copernican Revolution
Philosophical revolution proposed by Kant to understand synthetic a priori knowledge, leading to transcendental idealism. Kant explains this shift in the design of knowledge with an analogy to the Copernican revolution in astronomy. Copernicus realized that celestial motion could not be understood with Earth at the center. Similarly, Kant argued that to understand knowledge, we must shift from assuming the knower is passive to understanding the knower as active, shaping reality in the act of knowing.
Transcendental Illusion
The tendency of reason to seek the unconditioned, as if it could be known, a term introduced in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. The unconditioned is something whose existence is not dependent on another. For Kant, it was the focus of metaphysics. Reason seeks maximum unity in knowledge, achieved through the unconditioned. While the conditioned falls under categories of understanding, the unconditioned is an idea of reason (transcendental ideas), providing maximal unity. Examples include the idea of the self, the world as a totality of phenomena, and God as the ultimate unifying synthesis.
Imperative
Practical principles that dictate how goals should guide us, possessing a constrictive nature. When reason describes reality, it yields principles or laws. When used to direct conduct, it produces mandates, or “practical principles.” These are laws, not theoretical but practical, pertaining to action. They are “targets” aspiring to apply to all rational subjects, unlike subjective maxims. Kant distinguishes between hypothetical and categorical imperatives. Hypothetical imperatives describe actions good for achieving a purpose (e.g., “Do X if you want Y”). A categorical imperative is a universal and necessary command, declaring an action objectively good in itself, irrespective of extrinsic purpose, forming the basis of morality.
Social Contract
The social contract allows individuals to leave the state of nature and enter a civil state. It is not a historical fact but a hypothesis about how the State should be administered. It implies total submission to authority, similar to Hobbes’s view, but also that individuals are co-legislators. Laws must be enacted as if emanating from the general will, aligning Kant’s thought with Rousseau’s.
Liberty Law
For Kant and Rousseau, freedom is a natural right. Kant advocates for positive political freedom, where each individual is a co-author of state laws. Here, Kant diverges from Hobbes and approaches Rousseau’s concept of the “general will.” The ruler should legislate as if the united will of the people could consent to the laws.
The legal concept of freedom does not imply civil disobedience. Kant, like Hobbes, believed submission to state power was necessary for social order. To prevent abuses of power, Kant defends freedom of expression.
Cosmopolitan Law
Public law is divided into political rights, international law, and cosmopolitan law. Cosmopolitan law governs relationships between individuals and states. Kant believed that every world citizen has the right to visit any territory and be treated with hospitality. It prohibits colonization and promotes trade, fostering peace.