- 著者
-
早川 弘晃
- 出版者
- 中央大学
- 雑誌
- 総合政策研究 (ISSN:13417827)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.20, pp.65-115, 2012-03
This paper expounds the idea that a socio-economic order is a spontaneous and abstract order of productive activities, conjoining it with the Aristotelean notion that the essence of human existence consists in living a spontaneous life of activities for the fulfillment of its ultimate end. The spontaneity of the former is grounded in that of the latter, but human existence as a life of activities has no real value without a socio-economic order in which this life unfolds. Arguing that this order, if it is to persist and thrive, must be founded on moral principles, this paper scrutinizes the metaphysical foundations of moral laws and principles through an exegesis of Kant's moral philosophy (i.e., his notions of absolutely good will, autonomy, freedom, moral laws, and the kindgom of ends), and relating it to Aristotle's concept of entelecheia as the ultimate end of human existence. Kant's moral philosophy is founded on human existence rooted in the world of senses dictated by natural necessity as well as in the world of understanding governed by moral necessity. The moral necessity requires that human will to choose on actions must be determined autonomously by rational principles in accordance with the universal laws legislated by reason alone. This philosophy accords with Aristotle's metaphysics and ethics that the essence of the life of rational beings is to live a virtuous life of activities in accordance with rational principles and that this life requires that non-rational beings exist as resources for activities. Thus, Kant's metaphysics of universal moral laws as the categorical imperatives of human actions and Aristotle's ethics of virtuous living guided by phronesis (practical wisdom) are united to provide the moral and ethical cause of a socio-economic order in which humans as rational beings interact, unfold, and fulfill their lives of activities.