Enlightenment thinkers wanted to move away from a metaphysical understanding of the law because it fails to provide an adequate understanding. According to Rousseau, moral behaviour can be achieved through reason and reason alone:
“All justice comes from God, who is sole source; but if we knew how to government nor laws. Doubtless, there is a universal justice emanating from reason alone; but this justice, to be admitted among us, must be mutual.”
What this argument appears to be saying is that there is an absolute morality that can be derived from reason, but this understanding of reason must be shared amongst all human beings. What this absolute understanding of morality does is that it offers human beings with a clear understanding of what is morally acceptable and unacceptable. On the other hand, this understanding of morality does not consider the situation in which a moral judgement has been made.
Nevertheless, Rousseau’s view of morality inspired Immanuel Kant, who also believed that there was an objective moral law that can, and should be understood through reason. He rejects the idea that morality is dependent on “God’s will or the desire to promote