Constitutional Ethic And Its Sources Of Normativity

This article takes Constitutional Ethics and Its Sources of Normativity——From the Viewpoint of Kant's Conception of “Two Communities” as the topic;The so-called constitutional ethic is the ethical basis of constitution,and its sources of normativity is to explore what confirms the legitimate obligations of constitutional structure.Therefore,this paper mainly studies the moral basis of Kant's constitutional construction,that is,what confirms the legitimate obligations of constitution in Kant's philosophy.The full text includes five parts: introduction,why it is constitutional ethic,how the constitutional ethic is possible,constitutional ethics towards empire and conclusion.The part of “Introduction” mainly expresses the reason of choosing this topic and the author's position.Since modern times,Enlightenment has been promoting the progress of knowledge,but at the same time,it has accelerated its separation from practical reason.Modern people have fallen into the double crisis of system enslavement and lack of ethics,which is the survival background that we and Kant are facing up with together.Therefore,our task is to explore the ethical basis of constitution and prove the moral character of institutional norms.The part of “Crisis and Response: Why Is It Constitutional Ethic?” explains reasons why Kant constructed the constitution and explored the ethic behind it.Following the religious reforms and wars in modern Western Europe,the constitutional model of “God-Church-State-Individual” established in the Middle Ages gradually collapsed.God was expelled from the public sphere,and the issue of community,how individuals entered the political community,became the primary topic of modern legal philosophy.On the one hand,Hobbes restored the constitutional structure of “individual-state” to the product of naked power in a contractual way,completely eliminating the elements of political ethics;Rousseau realized this modernity question and demonstrated the possibility of universal will,but he had to resort to the pre-modern strategy of “great legislator”.On the other hand,Hume regards morality as the product of agreement,dispelling our belief in ethics;Utilitarianism,which originated from Hume's thoughts,extends the method of interest inspection to the field of legislation,resulting in the rights losing the moral dignity and the character of universality completely.Therefore,Kant had to respond to these historical burdens: seeking an ethical constitution.The part of “How the constitutional ethic is possible: from the ethical community to the political community” researches the concrete structure and ethical basis of Kant's constitution.Kant clearly put forward the concept of two communities: the political community based on the freedom right and the ethical community based on the equal morality,both of which aim to ensure the progress of mankind in the direction of the highest good.The two communities are not entirely separate: “God's chosen people” in the ethical community accept the universal legal compulsion of the political community and incorporate it into their own rules;In other words,the logical starting point of the political community,as individuals,is a member of the ethical community firstly,and then participates in the construction of legal norms with the identity of “God's chosen people”.Hence,Kant reversed the medieval vertical constitutional structure into a horizontal device of “God-Church(Ethical Community)-Individual-State”,and returned to traditional beliefs in a secular way.In the end,Kant provided a weak ethical proof for the liberal constitution and the legal compulsion in the political community: there is always a risk of fragmentation between the ethically equal individuals and the constitutional countries.The part of “The Thrilling Leap of Virtue Legislation: Constitutional Ethic Towards Empire” explains the ultimate trend of constitutional arrangement of political community and its final result of implementing the equal ethics under Kant's permanent peace plan.It is a theoretical problem that there is no coherent explanation between the equal ethics and the individual political community.In addition,the French Revolution and frequent wars in modern Europe made Kant attach great importance to the overall fate of mankind.These two factors jointly forced Kant to incorporate the arrangement of constitutional ethic into the planning of permanent peace.The process of fulfilling plans of the permanent peace means political states' withdrawal.The individual political community gradually gives way to a “world's state”.Here we can see Kant's cosmopolitan feelings and the revival of the Roman Empire's ambition.When the political state is gradually replaced by the “world's state”,the goal of the constitutional structure is no longer a set of universal and enforceable laws,but to liberate the equal “God's chosen people” from the legal compulsion.The result of this process is the formation of an equal constitution of world citizens.The part of “Conclusion” mainly reveals the legacy and contemporary significance of Kant's constitutional ethic.Kant hopes to set the shackles of equal virtue on the system of freedom to prove the moral quality of the system,which will provide valuable inspiration for the solution of the modern problems we are facing today,namely,system enslavement and moral retreat.