Question

1. Explain the Kantian moral principle that Marx and Nozick seem to share, and briefly, the different ways Marx and Nozick interpret that principle.
2. Explain the two versions of the social contract theorized by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and by Thomas Hobbes, respectively, according to Charles Mills.

Answer 1

According to the Kant, the rightness and wrongness of an action do not depend on their consequences but whether they fulfill our duty. Kant argues that a person is good or bad depends on the motivation of their actions and not on the goodness of the consequences of those actions. Kant always believed in the supreme principle of morality. According to Marx and Nozick, morality is a condition in which a person creates an action to determine in social laws. Carl Marx approach was very different than Kant but he supported his principle of morality in a different way while Nozick’s views were targeted on the morality of actions.

The social contract theory describes the relationship between society and individual, according to this theory, people live together in society in accordance with an agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behavior. Rousseau was aware of social contradictions and conflicts which caused problems in the social system. Charles Mills used the term racial contract to determine the social contract and he proposed that people create supremacy tendency and develop it with the social norms and relations, the white supremacy is an example of racial contract theory.