Kant and Modern Political Philosophy

Examines the relevance of Kant's political thought to major issues in contemporary political philosophy.

Katrin Flikschuh (Author)

9780521073028, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 September 2008

228 pages
22.4 x 14.4 x 1.3 cm, 0.34 kg

"One of the stated aims (and great merits) of Katrin Flikschuh's Kant and Modern Political Philosophy is to remove our collective post-Rawlsian spectacles when gazing at the oft-enigmatic body of work that is Kant's political thought...Katrin Flikschuh's book is one of the finest that this reviewer has encountered on the topic of Kant's political thought. It is certainly among the most thorough in its ability to both perceive and tackle some of the core technical issues of the field...Kant and Modern Political Philosophy is a must-read for those interested in either Kant's political thought or contemporary political theory." Philosophical Inquiry, Vol. XXIII

In this book Katrin Flikschuh examines the relevance of Kant's political thought to major issues and problems in contemporary political philosophy. She advances and defends two principal claims: that Kant's philosophy of Right endorses the role of metaphysics in political thinking, in contrast to its generally hostile reception in the field today, and that his account of political obligation is cosmopolitan in its inception, assigning priority to the global rather than the domestic context. She shows how Kant's metaphysics of freedom as a shared idea of practical reason underlies the cosmopolitan scope of his theory of justice, and she concludes that despite the revival of 'Kantianism' in contemporary thinking, his account of justice is in many respects very different from dominant approaches in contemporary liberal theory. Her study will be of interest to political philosophers, political theorists, and historians of ideas.

1. Kantian metaphysics in contemporary liberalism
2. The metaphysics of freedom as an idea of reason
3. The morality of external freedom
4. The Lex Permissiva: property rights and political obligation in the Rechtslehre
5. The general united will and cosmopolitan right
6. The metaphysics of Kant's cosmopolitanism.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]