Angela Davis’ book Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture provides her critique on how today’s democracy is continually weakened by structures of oppression, such as slavery, reconstruction, and lynching. By utilizing her own experience and employing views from historical figures like Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Dubois, Davis examines the chain of racism, sexism, and political oppression. She speaks of the hidden moral and ethical issues that bring difference within people’s social situations.
In the “Abolition Democracy” chapter, she describes the relationship between the production of law and violation of law demonstrated in the United States. People experience unjust social realities that the law cannot understand or
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Kant says to be free, we must behave rationally and choose autonomously, though that is not always the case. According to Kant, we act independently, which is performing autonomously and acting according to a law given by oneself. However, in a heteronomous manner, we will act upon incentives, for the sake of something else. He also says we are “sentient creatures,” capable of feeling pleasure and pain by responding to our senses and feelings. But are we free when we seek pleasure and avoid pain?
Kant’s notion of freedom connects to morality, which displays contrast between duty and inclination, explaining how only the motive of duty, doing the right thing for the right reason, confers moral worth of an action. Kant believes that everything in nature, including humans, “works in accordance with laws,” that all actions must be appointed by law, The formula of universal law that basically states how you should treat humanity as an end rather than as a means. He says we should only act upon the maxim, a principle that gives a reason for action, without contradiction.
Davis claims that law is not always reliable when insuring justice; moreover, Kant can support