Division of Humanities PhD Thesis Presentation - Rethinking Kantian Political Obligation: Natural Law, Social Contract, and Phenomenology

Abstract:

By focusing on Kant's practical philosophy, my dissertation examines the relationship between freedom, morality, and political obligation and explores how freedom and liberty interact with moral and social consciousness. First, I discuss the moral nature of legal obligation in the theories of Kant and contemporary political theorists and argue that morality should be separated from political obligation. Second, I also repudiate political obligation by examining natural law and contractarian theories. Finally, by introducing a phenomenological approach, I analyze how freedom, including human agency and liberty, and political obligation are embedded in moral consciousness and social memory.