Kant's Cosmopolitan Theory of Law and Peace

by Otfried Hoffe

• ISBN13: 9780521534086
• ISBN10: 0521534089
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Kant is widely acknowledged for his critique of theoretical reason, his universalistic ethics, and his aesthetics. Scholars, however, often ignore his achievements in the philosophy of law and government. At least four innovations that are still relevant today can be attributed to Kant. He is the first thinker, and to date the only great thinker, to have elevated the concept of peace to the status of a foundational concept of philosophy. Kant links this concept to the political innovation of his time, a republic devoted to human rights. He extends the concept by adding to it the right of nations and cosmopolitan law. Finally, Kant democratizes Plato's notion of philosopher kings with a concept of 'kingly people'. This book examines all aspects of this important, but neglected, body of Kant's writings.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	xi
Translator's Preface	xiii
Preface	xv
1 Kant's Challenge and Relevance Today	1
1.1 The More Fundamental Theory	1	(4)
1.2 Natural Law and Metaphysics	5	(4)
1.3 False Estimations	9	(4)
1.4 The Cosmopolitan Leitmotif	13	(8)
PART I. MORALS
2 Aristotle Instead of Kant?	21	(24)
2.1 Kant as a Follower of Aristotle	22	(2)
2.2 Aristotle's Ethics Is Universalistic	24	(3)
2.3 An Outline for an Aristotelian-Kantian Virtue Ethics	27	(7)
2.4 An Ethics of Striving or an Ethics of the Will	34	(5)
2.5 Does Aristotle Already Have a Concept of the Will?	39	(6)
3 Universalistic Ethics and the Faculty of Judgment	45	(23)
3.1 A Deflationary Theory of Judgment	45	(4)
3.2 A New Faculty of judgment	49	(6)
3.3 An "Esprit Moral"	55	(7)
3.4 Conflicts of Principles	62	(6)
4 On Evil	68	(13)
4.1 The Concept	69	(5)
4.2 Does Moral Evil Exist?	74	(1)
4.3 Evil by Nature?	75	(6)
PART II. RIGHT AND MORALS
5 Kant's More Nuanced Approach	81	(13)
5.1 Morality and Political Justice	81	(3)
5.2 Morality as an Improvement on Legality	84	(3)
5.3 Juridical and Ethical Legality	87	(4)
5.4 Against an Ethics of Private Conviction and Moralizing	91	(3)
6 The Moral Concept of Right and Law	94	(25)
6.1 A Rehabilitation of Natural Law	95	(2)
6.2 Is Natural Law Alone Scientific?	97	(3)
6.3 An A Priori Construction	100	(6)
6.4 Excursus: The Welfare State io	106	(4)
6.5 The Moral Concept of Right	110	(3)
6.6 The Authorization to Use Coercion	113	(2)
6.7 Appendix: Two Partially Legal Phenomena	115	(4)
7 Categorical Imperatives of Right According to Ulpian	119	(16)
7.1 A Categorical Preliminary Achievement	120	(4)
7.2 Categorical Imperatives of Private and Public Right?	124	(4)
7.3 A Duty of Right Contrary to Right?	128	(7)
PART III LEGAL MORALS AND PEACE
8 The Neglected Ideal	135	(24)
8.1 The Comprehensive Theory of Peace	135	(9)
8.2 "Kingly People"	144	(5)
8.3 Kingly Humanity	149	(4)
8.4 Truncated Influence	153	(6)
9 The "Idea": Legal Progress	159	(18)
9.1 Critical Thought and Progress	160	(6)
9.2 A Contradiction in the Federation of Peoples	166	(6)
9.3 Mechanism plus Moral Maturation	172	(5)
10 Peace I: Are Republics Peaceable?	177	(12)
10.1 Kant's Concept of the Republic	178	(4)
10.2 A Separable Thesis	182	(2)
10.3 Skeptical Considerations	184	(5)
11 Peace II: Federation of Peoples or World Republic?	189	(15)
11.1 A Contradiction.?	189	(4)
11.2 A Modest World Republic	193	(2)
11.3 Ideal or Surrogate?	195	(6)
11.4 Evil in Relations among Different Peoples	201	(3)
12 The Critique of Pure Reason: A Cosmo-Political Reading	204	(25)
12.1 Three Motives	204	(5)
12.2 "Critique" Instead of "Meditation"	209	(1)
12.3 For the Benefit of the Common Good	210	(2)
12.4 A Democratic Discourse	212	(4)
12.5 A Juridical State of Reason	216	(3)
12.6 Beyond an Alternative	219	(4)
12.7 The Cosmo-Political Concept of Philosophy	223	(2)
12.8 The Self-Governance of Reason	225	(4)
Bibliography	229	(16)
Index	245