The Boundary Between Morality And Right

The paper argues that, there is a special intellectual history context to the establishment of morality and right theory for Kant. This is the necessity for responding to the controversy between"particularity"and"universality", which comes from the political theory dispute between Hobbes and Rousseau. Hobbes took a lead role in demonstrating the essence of modern freedom is individual right. The fundamental principle of national doctrine is to realize the purpose of peace by the means of political contract and through refusing the classical polity with insisting on"particularity"--individual rights and freedom for his groundwork. However, such"particularity"principle unfolds the aspect of private interests of human and then the aim that citizens submit to their country internally can't be achieved. Rousseau created the theory of"general will"to counter"particularity"principle after Hobbes. The essence of"general will"is to realize the political legislation through the generalization of personal will and then"particularity"has to make place for"universality"in this community. The"universality"principle of Rousseau produces the moral politics concept at the price of the evacuation of"particularity"principle that is not easily achieved in real political experience, and it also may leads to break the faith of freedom ideal. The rebellion of French Revolution in 1789 can be said a good practice to Rousseau moral politics.The dispute between"particularity"and"universality"are regarded as the issue of morality and right in Kant's political philosophy. First, Kant got inspiration from"general will"theory of Rousseau, and rationalized the universality in Rousseau's political theory through the prior principle of the pure practical reason. That is the absolute command for morality:"Act so that the maxim of thy will can always at the same time hold good as a principle of universal legislation". Kant's Transcendental Ethics can be regarded as a great attempt on upgrading human dignity since the Enlightenment. However, the prospect of this morality was designed for"the whole rational existence", hence it is hard to be a standard for the public behavior. This paper prefer to regard Kant's Transcendental Ethics as a"ideal kingdom"in which the "imitation" namely the realistic world only can take the form of "right of kingdom". It makes regulation for the Phenomenal Existence of people and certifies the external freedom. Here, the perceptual world which is rejected by the"ethical theory"regains its due respect, and the property becomes to be the core content of the personal freedom. Thus,"particularity"that is rejected by Rousseau became the core in Kant's legislation and the"universality"is to exit as the tool used for coordinating self-interest. The principle of Right is,"so act externally that the free use of your choice can coexist with the freedom of everyone in accordance with a universal law".Most investigators considered that the contradiction between morality and right is a defect in Kant's philosophy. This paper contends that it is the excellence of Kant's political philosophy exactly. Kant became to be aware that the way of moralized the political matters can not be succeed through reflecting the experience of the French Revolution. Kant's discrimination between the morality and right completely solved the awkward position in which Hobbes and Rousseau hold each opinion differentiated for the other. In addition, he made a clear"bonds"for modern universality and particularity, and then both of them regressed into their own territory respectively. Such bonds provide the legal foundation for the conversion of Bourgeois to modern civil society.Of course, the distinction between morality and right by Kant just out of his practical consideration, but the ultimate purpose of right is still unified to morality in the ultimate sense. Moral kingdom is the ultimate value scale for right kingdom. Judgment Critique and a series of historical philosophy papers in Kant's later years provide a finalism of history for us. Although the right world hasn't realized man's freedom really, the gradually improved system of right is already the moral progress performance compared with natural state. Nature used the evil essence of human with the aim of leading to the good results. Moral kingdom as"ideal kingdom"on earth plays a regulatory principle, and it provides constant hope for human. The theory and reality after Kant's show that debates between"particularity"and"universality","right"and"morality"have always been the core problem of modern political philosophy. Reviewing the contribution of Kant's theory has important theoretical and practical significance for us to answer today's political problems.