Hobbes and kant Essay Example for Free

Hobbes and kant Essay The first humans on earth were primative clans that stuck together. As time developed so did the mind of the human. As the minds of humans started to expand, society developed and so did its many other aspects. One of those aspects is the social contract. A social contract are theories that try to explain the ways in which people form states and/or maintain social order. The notion of the social contract implies that the people give up some rights to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order through the rule of law. It can also be thought of as an agreement by the governed on a set of rules by which they are governed. Two theorists that had very strong views on the social contract were Thomas Hobbes and Immanuel Kant. Although both of these theorists believed in a social contract they both had different views on what it exactly meant. Hobbes was a different kind of philosopher that had a very pessimistic view on humanity. In Hobbes’ book the Leviathan, he believed that humans were naturally nasty creatures and needed to be regulated in a society. For Hobbes one thing he also believed in was Utilitarianism, which is the desire for pleasure that drives our actions, basically, the most useful choice for your benefit. Hobbes had a theory that was called â€Å"the state of nature†, which in the eyes of Hobbes was life for humans before any kind of laws or governments. He says that the state of nature is a violent place with no lows. In the state of nature there is no business, no account of time, buildings, and there is always danger around the corner. For Hobbes the â€Å"state of nature† was a savage place that could only be fixed by laws, there is only peace when there is no war and no war is a place with laws. Hobbes came to the conclusion that humans cant live in groups without law. Hobbes was Lopez 2 someone who thought that too much liberty was a bad thing for humans. Hobbes would say that the â€Å"state of nature† is because too much liberty. This is why Hobbes believed in the social contract, a sovereign must be established to regulate on the population. In Hobbes version of the social contract there must be a commonwealth or common state in which all citizens can feel safe. Citizens must feel safe in the common wealth in order for success and it’s the responsibility of the sovereign to make sure it is successful. Yet another important variable of the social contract is the consent of the mass. You must have â€Å"consent† from the governed in order to have a commonwealth. Hobbes does not believe in free will so when he says, â€Å"consent† what he really believes is that the commonwealth will happen regardless of the individuals consent or not. But with giving consent the governed must realize that they are giving up certain liberties and freedoms. One of them being that they can not question the authority of the sovereign to rule, cant kill the sovereign, and/or protest his will. The liberty of the commonwealth is altered because they must now live a certain way in order to live in it. The liberty of the governed is limited to the sovereigns view of liberty. Hobbes also believed that humans had reason. In order for this to happen humans need reason. Reason separates humans from reasonless animals. Humans have reputation, humans know private and public boundries, they can persuade and lie, and use that reason to make them a better liar. Once there is a commonwealth man is turned artificial. Kant’s version of the social contract is a bit different from that of Hobbes. For Kant the sovereign must recognize the original contract as an idea of reason that forces Lopez 3 the sovereign to give his laws in such a way that they could have arisen from the united will of a whole people and to regard each subject, insofar as he wants to be a citizen, as if he has joined in voting for such a will. This original contract, Kant stresses, is only an idea of reason and not a historical event. Any rights and duties stemming from an original contract do so not because of any particular historical provenance, but because of the rightful relations embodied in the original contract. No empirical act, as a historical act would be, could be the foundation of any rightful duties or rights. The idea of an original contract limits the sovereign as legislator. The consent at issue, however, is also not an empirical consent based upon any actual act. The set of actual particular desires of citizens is not the basis of determining whether they could possibly consent to a law. Rather, the kind of possibility at issue is one of rational possible unanimity based upon fair distributions of burdens and rights in abstraction from empirical facts or desires. Kant also believed in cosmopolitan right or ideal. Kants particular discussion of cosmopolitan right is restricted to the right of hospitality. Since all peoples share a limited amount of living space due to the spherical shape of the earth, the totality of which they must be understood to have originally shared in common, they must be understood to have a right to possible interaction with one another. This cosmopolitan right is limited to a right to offer to engage in commerce, not a right to demand actual commerce. A citizen of one state may try to establish links with other peoples; no state is allowed to deny foreign citizens a right to travel in its land. Settlement is another matter entirely. Kant is strongly critical of the European colonization of other lands already Lopez 4 inhabited by other peoples. Settlement in these cases is allowed only by uncoerced informed contract. Even land that appears empty might be used by shepherds or hunters and cannot be appropriated without their consent Cosmopolitan ideal is an important component of perpetual peace. Interaction among the peoples of the world, Kant notes, has increased in recent times. Violations of cosmopolitan right would make more difficult the trust and cooperation necessary for perpetual peace among states. The categorical imperative is the central philosophical concept in the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Introduced in Kants Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, it may be defined as the standard of rationality from which all moral requirements derive. According to Kant, human beings occupy a special place in creation, and morality can be summed up in one ultimate commandment of reason, or imperative, from which all duties and obligations derive. He defined an imperative as any proposition that declares a certain action (or inaction) to be necessary. Kants is similar to the social contract theory of Hobbes in a few important characteristics. The social contract is not a historical document and does not involve a historical act. In fact it can be dangerous to the stability of the state to even search history for such empirical justification of state power. The current state must be understood, regardless of its origin, to embody the social contact. The social contract is a rational justification for state power, not a result of actual deal-making among individuals or between them and a government. Another link to Hobbes is that the social contract is not voluntary. Individuals may be forced into the civil condition against their consent. Social contract is not based on any actual consent, one might say the voluntary choice to join a society. Since the social contract reflects reason, each human being as a rational being Lopez 5 already contains the basis for rational agreement to the state. A substantial difference between Kant and Hobbes is that Hobbes bases his argument on the individual benefit for each party to the contract, whereas Kant bases his argument on Right itself, understood as freedom for all persons in general, not even just for the individual benefit that each party to the contract obtains in his or her own freedom. Hobbes and Kant had similarities and differences but for both the ultimate focus of the social contract was for a sovereign to rule over a society for the good of the commonwealth. Both theorist had different views on the aspects of the social contract. Hobbes believed that too much liberty causes humans to be ruthless and unjust in the â€Å"state of nature†. And the only way to break from the â€Å"state of nature â€Å" was to get a sovereign to rule and regulate. While, Kant believed in rights themselves and the cosmopolitan ideal. Both of these theorist were respected in their day along with their theories. The social contract is still a concept that exists today and could even be applied to our own country but the bottom line is that there will always have to be a social contract between state and population weather anyone likes it or not.

Canterbury Tales Essay - The Assertive and Vulnerable Wife of Bath

The Assertive and Vulnerable Wife of Bath Society was different in Chaucer's time; males dominated and women were suppressed.   The manipulative and destructive nature of women was emphasized by men. Much like Eve in the Bible, women were blamed for the 'downfall of man'. Through the Wife of Bath, Chaucer investigates the difficulty of self-realization for a woman in this restrictive environment.   The wife of bath, Alison, represents antifeminist stereotypes and searches for happiness and a place in a patriarchal society.   Unfortunately, Alison is never in tune with who she really is as a woman.   Chaucer uses a series of ironies to eventually show that under her seemingly confident guise, there hides the soul of a vulnerable, lost woman. The Wife of Bath argues in favor of women.   She disparages the works of the male scholars that denigrate women.   Using her "savage lion" analogy, she reasons that "if women had but written the stories", then such negative portrayals would not exist.   Therefore, at first, the Wife of Bath appears to be in favor of women's rights.   Ironically, the Wife of bath does not help women, her actions coinciding with the scholars' accusations. Alison DOES dress gaily, with her stockings of "fine scarlet red".   The color red is indicative of a quarrelsome, bold lady, as is the symbol of the gap in her teeth, to indicate licentiousness.   When she goes "walking out by night", and "followed on my appetite, Whether the lad was short, long, black, or white."(275), the Wife does prove to be adulterous.   In relationships with her husbands, the wife IS devious and deceitful, making up accusations to pre-empt any on the part of the husbands. Therefore, while on one level attempting t o protest the "negative s... ...son into obedience, and has been the partner who dominates and controls all along.   Her efforts to find true happiness are futile, and she lives a lie. The Wife of Bath is admirable in that she is assertive and has attempted to succeed in her life. Despite being a woman of the fourteenth century, her ideas, beliefs, and actions are more like a woman of the twenty-first century. She is truly a woman ahead of her time. Unfortunately, her restrictive environment prevented her from self-realization.   Therefore, she fails to effectively cope with and change her situation.   The wife of bath is a sad, lost woman, who used the wrong methods to find true love and happiness.   Hiding behind a confident mask, this woman is never truly free.   Works Cited: Chaucer, Geoffrey.â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale.† The Canterbury Tales.Trans. Nevill Coghill. New York: Penguin, 1977.

Character Developments: in Cold Blood

Character Development: Techniques Truman Capote used several techniques to develop the characterization of the killers in his book, In Cold Blood. But primarily, Truman Capote uses anecdotes to describe the characters of Dick and Perry. An anecdote being, â€Å"a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. † He does this by describing their child lives, and how they became who they are in the present.An example of how Capote described the character of Perry is: â€Å" He was seven years old, a hated, hating half-breed child living in a California orphanage run by nuns- shrouded disciplinarians who whipped him for wetting his bed. † Not only does he use anecdotes for describing Dick and Perry’s childhood but also their problems they face in their present lives at the time. Such as Dick’s sexual interests in younger girls, â€Å" He was sorry he felt as he did about her, for his sexual interest in female children was a failing of which he was ‘sincerely ashamed. ’† Or when Capote quotes Perry about the murder of Mr.Clutter, saying; â€Å" I didn’t want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken right up to the moment I cut his throat. † This quote describes and confirms how Perry was insane during the murders that he committed. Capote uses this quote on purpose, because it describes how Perry’s intention was not to hurt anyone but it was a simple act of taking his frustration upon the Clutter family. Meaning that his anger was not because of the Clutter family, they just ended up receiving the end of Perry’s anger. In the story it seems as though the reader feels sympathetic towards the killers; Dick and Perry.Truman Capote does this mostly by describing the childhood of the killers, and what they went through as children that made a major impact on them now. Perry however, is more sympathized than Dick. It seems as though Perry had a ‘rougher upbringing’ than Dick did. For an example, when his sister sends him a letter of how disappointed she and her father are in his decisions. â€Å" Your present confinement is embarrassing to me as well as Dad – not because of what you did but the fact that you don't show me any signs of sincere regret and seem to show no respect for any laws, people or anything. Even though Perry made horrible decisions in his life, reading parts of this letter, sympathy can be a common emotion that the reader feels to see how much Perry was a disappointment to his family. Of course another key factor Capote used to gain sympathy from the readers was by writing them in the killers’ point of view. This way, you know more about the killers and their upbringing, and it makes you wonder if they really knew what they were doing.

Modernization And Development Towards Democracy - 1544 Words

This research paper uncovers the study of modernization and how it correlates to political development towards democracy. First, it examines the development and origins of the modernization theory that encompass a number of explanations that connect economic, social and cultural changes with shifts in political systems. Modernization puts forth the idea that economic development will lead to cultural and social changes that transform the political behavior of a country’s citizens that can ultimately lead to democratic governments. Subsequently, the paper moves to the empirical evidence supporting the modernization theory and critiquing the theory’s broader applicability. Some critics would suggest that certain types of economic development could actually destabilize society, rather than progressing the cultural and social components that provide the starting point for democratic societies. Meanwhile, others have advocated that wealth does not explain the emergence of de mocracy, and that the likelihood that a country remains democratic is higher in richer countries. Finally, it will look into future avenues in research on the correlation between political development and modernization. Modernization theory refers to a set of explanations that link economic development and social changes with the type of political regime that emerges. As countries economically modernize, they shift from agricultural to industrial societies. Industrialization results inShow MoreRelatedModernization Of The Chinese Government And Democracy Essay1484 Words   |  6 PagesModernization of the Chinese Government and Democracy In the past 35 years, China has experienced significant transformation and modernization of its democracy and governance. 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