洛克與康德,分別代表近代西方思想史上社會契約論與平等主義的高峰,但他們卻分別以行為或理論書寫了另一類契約:以人與人的不平等為前提的種族契約。洛克曾經深深卷入北美殖民地奴隸制事務、投資大西洋奴隸貿易。康德則以其自然科學家的思維構建了近代科學種族主義的概念框架。二人都在堅持人人生而平等且自由的同時,將黑人與印第安人降在與白人不能齊平的臺階上。這種由思想家所不加掩飾的種族等級觀,反映出近代西方哲學對種族間正義的冷漠,也暴露出啟蒙時代的重大缺陷。

John Locke and Immanuel Kant respectively represented the summits of Social Contract Theory and Equalitarianism in the history of Western philosophy. However, they wrote a different kind of contract by their actions or theories, namely a racial contract based on inequality between races. Locke once got deeply involved in the affairs of slavery in the North American colonies and had his money invested in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. As a natural scientist, Kant set up a basic concept of race for scientific racism developed during the nineteenth century. They both degraded the Black and American Indians on the social ladder lower than the White, while championing the idea of every one born equal and free. This naked hierarchical view on races shown by these so-called great thinkers revealed the existence of apathy about racial justice in the tradition of Western philosophy, as well as a great limitation in the Age of Enlightenment.