as, unlike the founders of America, Rousseau was not concerned with a real, live, specific historical situation he could to some extent afford to be more theoretical in his orientation. The philosopher Immanuel Kant was even more concerned with the philosophical notions of liberty, but he detached them from their functioning in government and instead was concerned about human being's innate liberty to do morally good or evil actions. Kant saw morality as existing not as something that could be constructed at will by human beings, but as something that existed for all time, and to be commensurate with the categorical imperative, people must act as if setting a law for conduct in an impartial manner for all time. To be free is to do good, and to act as a check upon your own immoral impulses and behaviors. Kant is concerned, as a Christian philosopher, with establishing the freedom of the will. Unlike Rousseau and the "Declaration of Independence" he does not look to nature to establish such freedom:
But freedom is a mere idea, the objective reality of which can in no wise be shown according to laws of nature, and consequently not in any possible experience; and for this reason it can never be comprehended or understood, because we cannot support it by any sort of example or analogy" (Kant, "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals," Part III). Regardless, within our own moral calculus, we must behave as if the will is free: "the hypothesis, however, that the will of intelligence is free, its autonomy, as the essential formal condition of its determination, is a necessary consequence" (Kant, "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals," Part III).
It might be said to...
But Kant does not explicitly say so. Kant wrote his work to function for 'all time,' like morality itself in all contexts, yet these different definitions of liberty highlight the contextual nature of the definition of liberty -- the practical demands of "The Declaration of Independence," Rousseau's mixed concerns of philosophy and politics in his works, and Kant's purely academic and cerebral debate all influenced these different thinker's definition of that simple, but so complicated word "liberty."
Works Cited
Declaration of Independence." Independence Hall Association. 4 Jul 1995. 2 Apr 2008. http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm
Kant, Immanuel. "Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals." 1785.
Translated by Steve Thomas. University of Adelaide E-text Collection.
Apr 2008. http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/kant/immanuel/k16prm/
Liberty." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2 Apr 2008. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberty
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "On the Origin of Inequality." Parts I & II. 2 Apr 2008. http://www.constitution.org/jjr/ineq_03.htm
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "The Social Contract." 1763. Translated by G. DH Cole.
Apr 2008. http://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon.htm
