SOCIAL CONTRACT AND PUBLIC OPINION- TWO POLITICAL CONCEPTS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Abstract

The article proceeds from an examination of Kant's political philosophy, which contains a detailed articulation of both social contract and publicity, that is to say, public opinion. Through an analysis of Kant's definitions of the distinction between the private and public use of reason, property rights and the relation between freedom, law and authority, it points out the main weaknesses of Kant's enlightened theory and then confronts it with theories of authors, who have made an important contribution to the development of the modern concept of public opinion, namely Burke, Bentham and Constant and their critical statements about rationalism in politics, the concept of law and the understanding of liberty and public opinion.