Kant's Core Philosophical Concepts: State, Law, and Knowledge

Social Contract Theory: Kant, Hobbes, and Rousseau

The social contract allows individuals to leave the state of nature to enter civil society. It is not a historical fact but a hypothesis that tells us how the state should be administered. The social contract involves the absolute subjugation of the individual to an authority, a concept Kant associated with Hobbes. At the same time, it implies that the individual is a legislator, meaning no law can be adopted without their consent. Therefore, the ruler must make laws as if they emanated from the general will, a point where Kant aligns with Rousseau's thought.

Cosmopolitan Law: Kant's Vision for Global Peace

Public Law is divided into political law, the law of nations, and cosmopolitan law. Cosmopolitan law concerns the relationships between individuals and states. Kant understood that any individual, by the mere fact of being a world citizen, is entitled to visit any country and not be treated with hostility. Cosmopolitan law prohibits hostile settlement and seeks to promote trade development, which ultimately becomes a key reason for building peace.

Juridical Freedom: Self-Legislation and State Power

Freedom is for Kant and Rousseau a natural right inherent to each individual. Kant, therefore, advocates for positive political freedom, where each individual becomes a legislator, a co-author of the state's laws. At this point, Kant departs from Hobbes and aligns this idea of self-legislation with Rousseau's concept of the "general will." The ruler should legislate as if the united will of the people could consent to the law. The legal concept of freedom, however, does not endorse civil disobedience, since Kant, like Hobbes, believed that submission to state power is a necessary condition for social order. To avoid excesses by the ruler, Kant relies on the defense of freedom of expression.

Kant's Copernican Revolution in Metaphysics

Mathematics and natural science found their way to scientific progress through a sudden revolution, a change of method; metaphysics, Kant argues, must follow suit. So far, it has been assumed that all our knowledge must be guided by objects. This aligns with Hume's philosophy, according to which all our knowledge comes from impressions of experience. However, Kant argues that if we accept Hume's empiricism, it becomes impossible to establish certainty about these objects. As previously noted, Hume rejected Newton's principle of constancy and the concept of universal and necessary laws, which represented a serious challenge to knowledge.