Freedom, Our Public and Private Interests, and Kant's Questions Essay

Freedom, Our Public and Private Interests, and Kant's Questions - Essay Example uinas’ definition of human character has fuelled academic debate as to the differences particularly in relation to the theories regarding freedom, public and private interests in light of Kant’s extrapolation of the Supreme Moral Principle of Good Will. The focus of this paper is to critically evaluate these differences with a contextual consideration of Kant’s Supreme Moral Principle of Good Will in practice. To this end, this paper will consider Kant and Aquinas’ central arguments and evaluate Kantian assumptions of innate morality in ethical theory and international relations. It is firstly submitted that Kant’s theory of enlightenment arguably focused on an attempt to seek out a truth of knowledge and similarly Aquinas’s arguments suggests that the underlying nature of being human was explained through rationale thought, which he in turn related to God. Furthermore, Deligiorgi posits that Kant’s philosophy belongs to an intellectual context in terms of the limits of enlightenment and he â€Å"defines enlightenment not in terms of rational certitudes but rather in terms of the freedom to engage in public argument† (Deligiorgi, 1). Accordingly, Kant’s philosophy is rooted in an innate moral propensity towards democracy as a result of human intellectual independence. Kant’s theory of the rationale for being human suggests that it is the interrelationship between intellectual independence and morality that is central to concepts of democracy. Similarly, Aquinas’ proposition of what constitutes being human also emphasises the independent voluntary exercise of will. However, in contrast to Kant, Aquinas’ theory was heavily intertwined with Catholic hierarchy and interpretations of existence (Ardley 3). Moreover, Aquinas’ central focus was on the issue of humanity in context of its relationship to God and the natural world. Additionally, Ardley highlights that the central difference with Kant’s principle of humanity was that â€Å"Aquinas