Enlightenment Fundamentals: Rights, Responsibilities & Republicanism

Article Sidebar

PDF Full text
Published: Jun 25, 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.40.2014.635
Keywords:
Hobbes, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, rational justification, mature judgment, moral constructivism, realism, objectivity, rights, responsibilities, republicanism, media culture, Euthyphro question, natural law, Dilemma of the Criterion

Main Article Content

Kenneth R. Westphal
University of East Anglia, School of Philosophy

Abstract

This essay re-examines some key fundamentals of the Enlightenment regarding individual rights, responsibilities and republicanism which deserve and require re-emphasis today, insofar as they underscore the character and fundamental importance of mature judgment, and how developing and fostering mature judgment is a fundamental aim of education. These fundamentals have been clouded or eroded by various recent developments, including mis-guided educational policy and not a little scholarly bickering. Clarity about these fundamentals is more important today than ever. Sapere aude!

Article Details

How to Cite
“Enlightenment Fundamentals: Rights, Responsibilities & Republicanism”. 2014. Diametros, no. 40 (June): 176-200. https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.40.2014.635.
Issue
No. 40 (2014)
Section
Special Topic - The Radicalism of the Enlightenment

By submitting his/her work to the Editorial Board, the author accepts, upon having his/her text recommended for publication, that Diametros applies the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license to the works we publish. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees. Anyone may read, download, copy, print, distribute or reuse these articles without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. The author holds the copyright without any other restrictions. Full information about CC-BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Author Biography

Kenneth R. Westphal, University of East Anglia, School of Philosophy

Kenneth R. Westphal
University of East Anglia, School of Philosophy
Honorary Professorial Fellow
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg,
Vertretungsprofessor für Philosophiegeschichte 2013-14
Seminar für Philosophie
D-06099 Halle, Saale
Germany

Email: westphal.k.r@gmail.com

Kenneth R. Westphal is Professorial Fellow in the School of Philosophy, University of East Anglia (Norwich), and currently Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle Wittenberg. His central research focus is the character and scope of rational justification in non-formal domains, both in theoretical and in moral philosophy. His research integrates systematic with historical, and analytical with hermeneutical methods, analyses and sources. His books include Hegel, Hume und die Identität wahrnembarer Dinge (Klostermann 1998) and Kant’s Transcendental Proof of Realism (Cambridge, 2004). His current research includes a monograph on moral constructivism which argues that strictly objective, fundamental moral standards can be identified and justified without appeal (pro or contra) to moral realism; and a monograph on Wilfrid Sellars’s philosophical semantics.

How to Cite

“Enlightenment Fundamentals: Rights, Responsibilities & Republicanism”. 2014. Diametros, no. 40 (June): 176-200. https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.40.2014.635.
Share |
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

References

Blackburn [1984] – S. Blackburn, Spreading the Word. Groundings in the Philosophy of Language, The Clarendon Press, Oxford 1984.

Bouterwek [1797] – F. Bouterwek, “Review of I. Kant, Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Rechtslehre,” Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen 28, 1797, pp. 265–276.

Bouterwek [1799] – F. Bouterwek, “Review of I. Kant, Erläuternde Anmerkungen zu den Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Rechtslehre,“ Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen 120, 1799, pp. 1197–1200. (Both reviews translated into English by K. R. Westphal: Kant Studies Online (2014).)

Carnap [1928] – R. Carnap, Der logische Aufbau der Welt, Weltkreis, Berlin 1928.

Carnap [1963] – R. Carnap, ”Intellectual Autobiography” [in:] P. A. Schilpp, (ed.), The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, Open Court, LaSalle, Ill 1963, pp. 3–84.

Cummiskey [1996] – D. Cummiskey, Kantian Consequentialism, Oxford University Press, New York 1996.

Curran [1790] – J. P. Philpot, “Speech of Mr. Curran, On the Right of Election of Lord Mayor of the City of Dublin, Delivered Before the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council of Ireland, 1790,” [in:] Speeches of John Philpot Curran, Esq: With a Brief Sketch of the History of Ireland a Biographical Account of Mr. Curran, 2 vols., I. Riley, New York 1811, vol. 2, pp. 235–236; http://books.google.com/books?id=xTg2AAAA MAAJ&pg=PA235.

Dewey [1916] – J. Dewey, Democracy and Education, Macmillan, New York 1916.

Dorschel [2001] – A. Dorschel, Nachdenken über Vorurteile, Meiner, Hamburg 2001.

Eisenhower [1961] – D. D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, 17. Jan. 1961. Broadcast nationally in the USA by radio and television; text and links: http://www.panarchy.org/eisenhower/farewelladdress.html; audio: http://webstorage4.mcpa.virginia.edu/dde/audiovisual/speeches/spe_1961_eisenhower. mp3; video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qdrGKwkmxAU.

Ginsberg [2011] – B. Ginsberg, The Fall of the Faculty, Oxford University Press, New York 2001.

Green [2003] – T. Green, Voices: The Educational Formation of Conscience, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IN 2003.

Haack [2013] – S. Haack, Putting Philosophy to Work, Prometheus, Amherst, NY 2013.

Haack [2015] – S. Haack, “The Fragmentation of Philosophy, The Road to Reintegration,” [in:] J. Göhner and E.-M. Jung (eds.), Reintegrating Philosophy (forthcoming).

Head [2011] – S. Head, “The Grim Threat to British Universities,” The New York Review of Books, 13. Jan. 2011; https://www.readability.com/articles/n9pjbxmz.

Hegel [1821] – G. W. F. Hegel, Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts: Oder Naturrecht und Staatswissenschaft im Grundrisse. Critical edition by K. Grotsch and E. Weisser-Lohmann, [in:] G. W. F. Hegel, Gesammelte Werke (Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft & die Rheinisch-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften; Hamburg: Meiner, 2009–2012), vol. 14; cited as ‘Rph’, ‘Anm.’ indicate Hegel’s published remarks.

Hegel [1991] – G. W. F. Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, A. Wood (ed.), H. B. Nisbet (trans.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991.

Horn [2014] – C. Horn, Nichtideale Normativität. Ein neuer Blick auf Kants politische Philosophie, Suhrkamp, Berlin 2014.

Hume [1739–40] – D. Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature. Critical edition by D. F. Norton & M. J. Norton, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2000; cited as ‘T’ by Book.Part.§.paragraph numbers.

Jenlink [2011] – P. Jenlink (ed.), Dewey’s “Democracy and Education” Revisited. Contemporary Discourses for Democratic Education and Leadership, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD 2011.

Kant [1902] – I. Kant, Kants Gesammelte Schriften, 29 Bände. Königlich Preußische (jetzt Deutsche) Akademie der Wissenschaften, 29 Bände, G. Reimer, jetzt de Gruyter, Berlin 1902–; cited as ‘GS’ by initials of Kant’s German titles and by volume, page number.

Kant [1781, 1786] – I. Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft. GS 3, 4, pp. 1–386; ‘KdrV’.

Kant [1785] – I. Kant, Die Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten. GS 4, pp. 387–463; ‘Gr’.

Kant [1788] – I. Kant, Die Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. GS 5, pp. 3–163; ‘KdpV’.

Kant [1797–98] – I. Kant, Die Metaphysik der Sitten, I: Rechtslehre; II: Tugendlehre. GS 6, pp. 203–493; ‘MdS’, ‘RL’.

Kant [1795] – I. Kant, Zum ewigen Frieden. Ein philosophischer Entwurf. GS 8, pp. 343–386; ‘ZeF’.

Kant [1798] – I. Kant, Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht. GS 7, pp. 119–333.

Kant [1996] – I. Kant, Practical Philosophy, M. Gregor (trans.); M. Gregor and A. Wood (eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996.

Kettner [2002] – M. Kettner, “The Disappearance of Discourse Ethics in Habermas’s Between Facts and Norms,” [in:] R. von Schomberg and K. Baynes (eds.), Discourse and Democracy, SUNY Press, Albany 2002, pp. 201–218.

Kettner [2004] – I. Kettner, “Das Spezifikum der Diskursethik ist die vernunftmoralische Normierung diskursiver Macht,” [in:] P. Ulrich and M. Breuer (eds.), Wirtschaftsethik im philosophischen Diskurs. Begründung und “Anwendung“ praktischen Orientierungswissens, Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2004, pp. 45–64.

Kettner [2008] – I. Kettner, “Konsens,” [in:] S. Gosepath, W. Hinsch, and B. Rössler (eds.), Handbuch der politischen Philosophie und Sozialphilosophie, De Gruyter, Berlin 2008, vol. 1, pp. 641–644.

Lazear [2000] – E. Lazear, The Peter Principle: Promotions and Declining Productivity, The Hoover Institution and The Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, Cal. 2000; www-siepr.stanford.edu/Papers/pdf/00-04.pdf.

Ludwig [1998] – B. Ludwig, Die Wiederentdeckung des epikureischen Naturrechts: zu Thomas Hobbes' philosophischer Entwicklung von De cive zum Leviathan im Pariser Exil 1640–1651, Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1998.

McIntosh, Tainter & McIntosh [2000] – R. McIntosch, J. Tainter and S. K. McIntosh (eds.), The Way the Wind Blows: Climate, History, and Human Action, Columbia University Press, New York 2000.

Mill [1984] – J. S. Mill; J. M. Robson (gen. ed.), The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, 33 vols., University of Toronto Press / Routledge & Kegan Paul, Toronto / London 1984.

Mills [1956] – C. W. Mills, The Power Elite, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1956.

Neuhouser [2000] – F. Neuhouser, The Foundations of Hegel’s Social Theory, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 2000.

O’Neill [1986] – O. O’Neill, Faces of Hunger: An Essay on Poverty, Justice, and Development, George Allen & Unwin, London 1986.

O’Neill [1989] – O. O’Neill, Constructions of Reason, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989.

O’Neill [1992] – O. O’Neill, “Vindicating Reason” [in:] P. Guyer (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Kant, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992, pp. 280–308.

O’Neill [2000] – O. O’Neill, “Kant and the Social Contract Tradition,” [in:] F. Duchesneau, G. Lafrance and C. Piché (eds.), Kant Actuel: Hommage à Pierre Laberge, Bellarmin, Montréal 2000, pp. 185–200.

Parfit [2011] – D. Parfit, On What Matters, 2 vols., Oxford University Press, Oxford 2011.

Peter & Hull [1969] – L. Peter & R. Hull, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong, William Morrow and Company, New York 1969.

Quine [1951] – W. V. O. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism,” Philosophical Review 60 (1), 1951, pp. 20–43; revised edition in: idem., From a Logical Point of View, Harper and Row, New York 1951, pp. 20–46.

Quine [1960] – W. V. O. Quine, Word and Object, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1960.

Quine [1961] – W. V. O. Quine, From a Logical Point of View, 2nd revised edition, Harper & Row, New York 1961.

Rapic [2014] – S. Rapic, “Höllenfahrt einer politischen Utopie? Das Ende des Marxismus – und seine offenen Fragen,” [in:] idem. (ed.), Habermas und der historische Materialismus, Karl Alber, Freiburg 2014.

Reisch [2005] – G. Reisch, How the Cold War Transformed the Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005.

Rhodes [1986] – R. Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Simon & Schuster, New York 1986.

Rhodes [1995] – R. Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, Simon & Schuster, New York 1995.

Rousseau [1762] – J. J. Rousseau, Du contrat social, Marc Michel Rey, Amsterdam 1762; reprinted in: B. Gagnebin and M. Raymond (eds.), with F. Bouchardy et al., Oeuvres complètes, vol. 3, Gallimard (Pléiade), Paris 1976, vol. 3, pp. 347–470; cited as ‘CS’ by book.chapter.paragraph number: CS 2.6.3.

Rouseau [1994] – J. J. Rousseau, “The Social Contract,” [in:] Social Contract, Discourse on the Virtue Most Necessary for a Hero, Political Fragments, and Geneva Manuscript, J. R. Bush, R. D. Masters and C. Kelly (trans.), R. D. Masters (ed.), Collected Writings of Rousseau, Dartmouth College Press, Hanover, NH 1994, vol. 4, pp. 129–224.

Rühl [2010] – U. Rühl, Kants Deduktion des Rechts als intelligibler Besitz. Kants »Privatrecht« zwischen vernunftrechtlicher Notwendigkeit und juristischer Kontingenz, Mentis, Paderborn 2010.

Russell [1923] – B. Russell, “Dr. Schiller’s Analysis of The Analysis of Mind,” Journal of Philosophy 19, 1923, pp. 645–651; reprinted in: J. Passmore (gen. ed.), The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Routledge, London 1994, vol. 9, pp. 37–44.

Scharff [1995] – R. Scharff, Comte after Positivism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995.

Schekman [2013] – R. Schekman, “How journals like Nature, Cell and Science are damaging science,” The Guardian, Mon 9. Dec. 2013; http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/09/how-journals.

Sextus Empiricus [1912, 1914, 1961, 1962] – Sextus Empiricus, H. Mutschmann, J. Mau and K. Janáček (eds.), Opera , 4 vols., Teubner, Leipzig 1912, 1914, 1961, 1962.

Sinclair [1906] – U. Sinclair, The Jungle, Doubleday, Page & Co., New York 1906.

Tainter [1998] – J. Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998.

Tainter & Patzek [2012] – J. Tainter & T. Patzek, Drilling Down: The Gulf Oil Debacle and our Energy Dilemma, Springer/Copernicus Books, New York 2012.

Tang [2011] – S. Tang, A General Theory of Institutional Change, Routledge, London and New York 2011.

Thomas [2011] – K. Thomas, “Universities under Attack,” The London Review of Books, 28 Nov. 2011; http://www.lrb.co.uk/2011/11/28/keith-thomas/universities-under-attack.

Truman [1951] – D. Truman, The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion, Knopf, New York 1951.

Watson [2012] – D. Watson, “A New Dusk,” The Monthly, Australia, August 2012, pp. 10–14; http://www.themonthly .com.au/comment-new-dusk-don-watson-5859.

Watson [1881] – J. Watson, Kant and his English Critics, Maclehose /Macmillan; Glasgow / London & New York 1881.

Weinrib [2008] – J. Winrib, “Kant on Citizenship and Universal Independence,” Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 33, 2008, pp. 1–25.

Westphal [1992] – K. R. Westphal, “Kant on the State, Law, & Obedience to Authority in the Alleged ‘Anti-Revolutionary’ Writings,” Journal of Philosophical Research 17, 1992, pp. 383–426; reprinted in: S. Byrd and J. Hruschka (eds.), Kant and Law, Ashgate, Aldershot 2006, pp. 201–44.

Westphal [1997] – K. R. Westphal, “Do Kant’s Principles Justify Property or Usufruct?” Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik/Annual Review of Law and Ethics 5, 1997, pp. 141–194.

Westphal [1998] – K. R. Westphal, “Hegel’s Solution to the Dilemma of the Criterion,” [in:] J. Stewart (ed.), The Phenomenology of Spirit Reader: A Collection of Critical and Interpretive Essays, SUNY Press, Albany 1998, pp. 76–91.

Westphal [2010a] – K. R. Westphal, “From ‘Convention’ to ‘Ethical Life’: Hume’s Theory of Justice in Post-Kantian Perspective,” The Journal of Moral Philosophy 7 (1), 2010, pp. 105–132; doi: 10.1163/174046809X12507600512291.

Westphal [2010b] – K. R. Westphal, “Practical Reason: Categorical Imperative, Maxims, Laws,” [in:] W. Dudley and K. Engelhard (eds.), Kant: Key Concepts, Acumen, London 2010, pp. 103–119; doi: 10.1017/UPO9781844654758.007.

Westphal [2012a] – K. R. Westphal, “Die positive Verteidigung Kants der Urteils- & Handlungsfreiheit, und zwar ohne transzendentalen Idealismus,” [in:] M. Brandhorst, A. Hahmann and B. Ludwig (eds.), Sind wir Bürger zweier Welten? Freiheit und moralische Verantwortung im transzendentalen Idealismus, Meiner, Hamburg 2012, pp. 259–277.

Westphal [2012b] – K. R. Westphal, “Norm Acquisition, Rational Judgment & Moral Particularism,” Theory and Research in Education 10 (1), 2012, pp. 3–25; doi: 10.1177/1477878512437477.

Westphal [2013a] – K. R. Westphal, “Natural Law, Social Contract & Moral Objectivity: Rousseau’s Natural Law Constructivism,” Jurisprudence 4 (1), 2013, pp. 48–75; doi: 10.5235/20403313.4.1.48.

Westphal [2013b] – K. R. Westphal, “Rational Justification & Mutual Recognition in Substantive Domains,” Dialogue: Canadian Journal of Philosophy/Revue canadienne de philosophie 52, 2013, pp. 1-40; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/-S0012217313000796.

Westphal [2013c] – K. R. Westphal, “Objective Spirit: Right, Morality, Ethical Life, World History,” [in:] A. deLaurentiis and J. Edwards, (eds.), The Bloomsbury Companion to Hegel, Bloomsbury, London 2013, pp. 157–178.

Westphal [2014] – K. R. Westphal, “Hegel’s Semantics of Singular Cognitive Reference, Newton’s Methodological Rule Four & Scientific Realism Today,” Philosophical Inquiries 2 (1), 2014, pp. 9-65; http://philinq.it/index.php/philinq/article/view/86/44.

Westphal [forthcoming] – K. R. Westphal, “Moralkonstruktivismus, Vertragstheorie & Grundpflichten: Kant contra Gauthier.”

Wolff [2009] – M. Wolff, “Warum das Faktum der Vernunft ein Faktum ist. Auflösung einiger Verständnisschwierigkeiten in Kants Grundlegung der Moral,” Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 57 (4), 2009, pp. 511–549.

Zammito [2012] – J. Zammito, “Rival Enlightenments, Counter-Enlightenments and Anti-Enlightenments: The Status of a Period Concept in 21st Century Historiography,” [in:] H. Feger, (ed.), The Fate of Reason. Contemporary Understanding of Enlightenment, Könighausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2012, pp., 299–304.