Freedom, Justice, and the Social Contract: A Study in the Moral and Political Philosophies of Rousseau and Kant

The theme of this dissertation is the relation between freedom and justice. I approach this theme by studying the relation between freedom and justice in the philosophies of Rousseau and Kant. I argue that the moral and political philosophies of Rousseau and Kant can be understood in terms of the interplay between the norms of moral freedom and liberty, and I show how they have different understandings of the relation between these norms, and, therefore, offer two different views on the relation between freedom and justice. I identify three basic contrasts. First, there is a difference in the kind of freedom that they think is the primary concern of justice: Rousseau thinks justice is primarily about moral freedom, while Kant thinks that it is primarily about liberty. Second, there is a difference in the way that they think justice is concerned with freedom: Rousseau thinks that justice requires the promotion of moral freedom, while Kant thinks that justice requires that the exercise of freedom of each respects the equal rights to liberty of all. Third, there is a difference in their views on when justice is fully satisfied: for Rousseau, justice is satisfied if the social conditions are maximally conducive to the moral freedom, while for Kant, justice is fully satisfied when the exercise of freedom of each is consistent with the equal freedom of all others. The contrasts between Rousseau and Kant can be drawn quite sharply. For Rousseau, liberty is a requirement of justice, for Kant, justice is the requirements of liberty. For Rousseau justice is about promoting the human good; for Kant justice is not about the human good. So, for Rousseau, justice is only fully satisfied by a nation of angels (for only then would all realize the ideal of moral freedom); for Kant, justice could be fully satisfied by a nation of devils (if no devil's rights are violated).