Freedom Flashcards
Who is Kant and what did he develop?
- He is one of the preeminent thinkers in world history, whose philosophy touches on all aspects of human life
- he developed an influential ethics that takes the dignity of rational creatures
- they have dignity because they are capable of being a law unto themselves
What does freedom entail for Kant?
- the idea of right
- jumps directly to civil society and the state as a means of securing freedom
What is Kant’s concept
- right is a relation among individuals that preserves individual freedom through mutual restriction
- right requires us to act in a way that allows us to harmonize our freedom, not a personal possession but describes a way in which we ought to behave toward others
What are the 3 principles that must be respected to be considered a lawful state?
- the freedom of every member of a commonwealth as a human being
- the equality of each with all others as a subject
- the independence of each member of a commonwealth as a citizen
What is freedom according to Kant?
people must be free to pursue their conception of happiness so long as it is consistent with other’s pursuit of happiness
the contradiction is the idea of being ruled by a benevolent dictator- someone who determines people’s way of life in a way consistent with their desire
What is patriotic?
- ought to instill a love of freedom in each member of society where each is willing to defend the freedom to pursue one’s won conception of happiness
- because each person stands for freedom in the same way, everyone is owed the ability to be free and that should be protected
What is equality?
each member of society has an equal right to coercion to other members
this means that no one has the lawful ability to dominate another except through the operation of the law
What is independence?
an individual must be independent from others and be capable of making their minds up about how society should be structured
What happened in the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire?
- Triangle Shirtwaist factory made clothes and was located on the upper story of a building in downtown Manhattan
- In 1911, a fire broke out burning up all the textiles and the girls tried to escape but burned themselves due to the metal barrier, they were trapped with no sprinklers and no fire alarms
-this fire led to the first legislation requiring fire sprinklers in factories
- however, 2 weeks later, the bosses locked the workers in again
What are the workers?
In capitalism, the vast majority of people are wage labourers- they earn a wage for selling their labour according to the time worked
What are wages?
Human beings have needs: food, shelter, community etc.
under the current arrangement, money and/or private property is needed to satisfy these needs
What is the fundamental principle of capitalism?
to increase capital
What is the Jewish Question?
A text by Bruno Bauer about religion is too divisive for Jews and Christians to be under the law
to be equal under the law, that is, have equal rights, religion must be eliminated from the state
Bauer suggests that citizenry must be fairly homogeneous- minimal differences in terms of way of life and culture
What does Marx argue?
- Rights are the product of a state, a historical entity
- rights represent humans as egoistical individuals cut off from other humans
- emancipation requires that we move beyond rights toward human association
What is the argument against Bauer?
- one of the fundamental rights is the right to practice one’s chosen religion (contradiction between humans and state-given rights)
- the real trouble is that even though they could have equal rights, they would still be severed from others
- all equality means is the equal right to liberty, the equal right to pursue self-interest cut off from others, the equal right of self-sufficient individual to live their life as they see fit
