Kant, Social Contract and contemporary Diversity

Introduction

The 'Social Contract' is a hypothetical concept, not a historical assertion, concerning the moral basis of cultures and society. The views of Immanuel Kant assist us to know what a social contract represents in an initial logic. Kant examined the metaphysical (or religious-based) fundamentals of political philosophy. In “Critique of Pure Reason”, Kant analyses the idea that through reason we can reach the proposition that there is a “Creator”. Without going wholly into Kant's argument, it is vital to understand that without the notion of a Creator, the view of the pre-existence of equality in the state of nature as supported by Locke comes into question. (Mills, 68)

This paper discusses how Kant's argument for the Social Contract being a hypothetical one in which an “idea of reason” would lead us to act as we would in the original position could not be considered compatible with modern-day diversity.

Discussion

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) widened social contract theory by stating the contract as a regulatory ideal. According to Kant, social contract is not so much what individuals would have the same opinion as what they could agree to in such a hypothetical condition. For Kant, the social contract was that ideal to which individuals would agree if they were ideal moral beings. In his view all laws should be framed so that everyone would consent to them if given the choice.

Kant argued that human understanding is not uniform because individual approaches to understanding are not uniform. When we study society and the inequities within society, individuals' power of reason might lead to different conclusions about what society could or should do to limit inequalities, or even result in one not seeing or comprehending inequality. Development of a standard approach to understanding becomes central to explaining phenomena, their causes and effects, and the ability to predict or change the direction of phenomena. If we form agreement on how to “see,” and determine, via scientific theory, what we “see” might mean, then the idea of uniform knowledge and understanding is made possible. (Boucher, 65-66)

Kant's ideas led to the questioning of Locke's assumptions about the state of nature and the capacity and role of government. Kantian thought draws our attention to the condition of individuals. We discover the variations in the condition and state of individuals, variations not yet fully explicated through scientific analysis. Absent Locke's notion of individual natural rights and natural law (and given that scientific research has shown that inequalities exist between individuals), it would appear that we do not enter the social contract as equals and our existence under the social contract may remain unequal in significant ways. Kant proves to be critical to modern liberal thought because his ideas lead to important questions about the nature of classical and modern liberalism:

His questioning of the basis of rights serves to confirm some elements of Rousseau—namely, the notion that rights emerge from human society rather than from an otherworldly “Creator.”

His argument in favor of uniform science for observation, ...