Kant's Politics in Context shows how Kant developed his legal and political philosophy in an environment of controversy between conservative and radical observers of the French Revolution. Reidar Maliks argues that Kant recognized in the Revolution of 1789 his own concept of equal freedom, which he in the following decade developed into a theory of law and the state. This concept of freedom was at the root of his condemnation of paternalistic government, which makes persons dependent on the good will of a ruler, and his denunciation of direct democracy, which subjects persons to the arbitrary decisions of a majority. It led Kant to develop a republican constitutionalism, where persons are free and independent because they are subject only to law. That Kant idealized the public sphere is well known, but that he intentionally developed his own philosophy in polemical articles and pamphlets aimed for a wide audience has not been fully appreciated. Paying attention to the debates he sparked during the 1790s - where radical followers like Fichte, Erhard, and Bergk clashed with conservative critics like Rehberg, Möser, and Gentz - can help us understand Kant's political philosophy. The first comprehensive account of Kant's politics in context, this book provides a fresh perspective both on a foundational moment for modern political philosophy and on Kant's central political concepts, including freedom, rights, citizenship, revolution, and war.
...MoreReview Ben Holland (2016) Review of "Kant's Politics in Context". History of European Ideas (pp. 162-164).
Similar Citations
Book
Blamires, Cyprian;
(2008)
The French Revolution and the Creation of Benthamism
(/isis/citation/CBB000953774/)
Article
Zammito, John H.;
(2008)
A Text of Two Titles: Kant's “A Renewed Attempt to Answer the Question: “Is the Human Race Continually Improving?””
(/isis/citation/CBB000931159/)
Article
Alexander Cook;
(2013)
‘The Great Society of the Human Species’: Volney and the Global Politics of Revolutionary France
(/isis/citation/CBB628508182/)
Article
Holland, Ben;
(2012)
Pufendorf's Theory of Facultative Sovereignty: On the Configuration of the Soul of the State
(/isis/citation/CBB001212690/)
Chapter
Belmonte, Miguel Angel;
(2010)
La receptión de la prudencia política aristotélica en la síntesis de Santo Tomás
(/isis/citation/CBB001210704/)
Article
Taylor, Michael;
(2014)
British Conservatism, the Illuminati, and the Conspiracy Theory of the French Revolution, 1797--1802
(/isis/citation/CBB001201792/)
Book
Jacqueline Anne Taylor;
(2015)
Reflecting Subjects: Passion, Sympathy, and Society in Hume's Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB180375452/)
Book
Arthur, Richard;
(2014)
Leibniz
(/isis/citation/CBB001510059/)
Book
Schofield, Philip;
(2006)
Utility and Democracy: The Political Thought of Jeremy Bentham
(/isis/citation/CBB000930086/)
Book
Vera Keller;
(2015)
Knowledge and the Public Interest, 1575-1725
(/isis/citation/CBB050157484/)
Book
Cherni, Amor;
(2002)
Diderot: L'ordre et le devenir
(/isis/citation/CBB000201324/)
Article
Howell, Peter;
(2004)
Godwin, Contractarianism, and the Political Dead End of Empiricism
(/isis/citation/CBB000660542/)
Article
Devellennes, Charles;
(2013)
Fourth Musketeer of Social Contract Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB001212684/)
Article
Sonenscher, Michael;
(2009)
Ideology, Social Science and General Facts in Late Eighteenth-Century French Political Thought
(/isis/citation/CBB001030362/)
Book
Matustic, Martin Beck;
(2001)
Jürgen Habermas: A Philosophical-Political Profile
(/isis/citation/CBB000101945/)
Book
Garvey, Gregory T.;
(2001)
Emerson Dilemma: Essays on Emerson and Social Reform
(/isis/citation/CBB000102052/)
Article
Insole, Christopher;
(2011)
Kant's Transcendental Idealism and Newton's Divine Sensorium
(/isis/citation/CBB001230825/)
Book
Cohen, Alix;
(2014)
Kant's Lectures on Anthropology
(/isis/citation/CBB001551074/)
Book
Mensch, Jennifer;
(2013)
Kant's Organicism: Epigenesis and the Development of Critical Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB001213143/)
Article
Jerome Carroll;
(2018)
William James and 18th-Century Anthropology: Holism, Scepticism and the Doctrine of Experience
(/isis/citation/CBB974076719/)
Be the first to comment!