Kant's Political Legacy

Luigi Caranti

Description

This book focuses on Kant’s analysis of three issues crucial for contemporary politics. Starting from a new reading of Kant’s account of our innate right to freedom, it highlights how a Kantian foundation of human rights, properly understood and modified where necessary, appears more promising than the foundational arguments currently offered by philosophers. It then compares Kant’s model for peace with the apparently similar model of democratic peace to show that the two are profoundly different in content and in quality. The book concludes in analysis of Kant’s controversial view of history to rescue it from the idea that his belief in progress is at best over-optimistic and at worst dogmatic.

 

Congratulations to Professor Luigi Caranti and his book 'Kant's Political Legacy' which has been given a 'honorable mention' by the North American Kant Society in the competition for the best 2018 book on Kant!! http://northamericankantsociety.onefireplace.org/Announcements/6660588

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Political
• Philosophie et théologie
• Philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783169801
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

P O L I T I C A L P H I L O S O P H Y N O W

Chief Editor of the Series: Howard Williams, Aberystwyth University, Wales

Associate Editors: Wolfgang Kersting, University of Kiel, Germany Steven B. Smith, Yale University, USA Peter Nicholson, University of York, England Renato Cristi, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada

Political Philosophy Now is a series which deals with authors, topics and periods in political philosophy from the perspective of their relevance to current debates. The series presents a spread of subjects and points of view from various traditions which include European and New World debates in political philosophy.

Also in series Hegel and Marx: After the Fall of Communism David MacGregor Politics and Teleology in Kant Edited by Paul Formosa, Avery Goldman and Tatiana Patrone Identity, Politics and the Novel: The Aesthetic Moment Ian Fraser Kant on Sublimity and Morality Joshua Rayman Politics and Metaphysics in Kant Edited by Sorin Baiasu, Sami Pihlstrom and Howard Williams Nietzsche and Napoleon: The Dionysian Conspiracy Don Dombowsky Nietzsche On Theognis of Megara Renato Cristi and Oscar Velásquez Francis Fukuyama and the end of history Howard Williams, David Sullivan and E. Gwynn Matthews

P O L I T I C A L P H I L O S O P H Y N O W

Kant’s Political Legacy Human Rights, Peace, Progress

Luigi Caranti

UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS

© Luigi Caranti, 2019

First edition published in hardback, 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or inciden tally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Appli cations for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the Univer sity of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, CardiffCF103NS.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CataloguinginPublication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781786834317 eISBN 9781783169801

The right of Luigi Caranti to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Typeset by Marie Doherty Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Melksham

Contents

Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I: Human Rights 1 Kant’s Theory of Human Rights 2 Human Rights: the Contemporary Debate 3 The Foundation of Human Rights: The Dignity Approach

Part II: Peace 4 The Kantian Model 5 Democratic Peace Theory 6 The Two Models Compared

vii ix

1

15 17 40

5

7

105 107 160 195

Part III: Progress 207 7 Kant’s Early Teleology inIdea 209 8To Perpetual Peace: A Secular Guarantee of Progress? 218 9 Progress and Political Agency 235

Notes Bibliography Index

257 279 299

This page is intentionally left blank

Acknowledgements

I owe gratitude to many friends and colleagues for this book, and those cited here are a small subset of the people whose help should be acknowledged. Sebastiano Maffettone, Alessandro Ferarra, Allen Buchanan, John Tasioulas and others offered valu able critical comments on part I. Michael Doyle, Bruce Russett, Daniele Archibugi, Pauline Kleingeld, Paul Guyer, Massimo Mori, Thomas Pogge and, again, many others contributed to the chapters collected in part II. In particular, I greatly profited from the criticisms I received from Joshua Cohen and his students at the Stanford Political Science Workshop. Alessandro Pinzani deserves a special mention for his help not only with part III, but for reading and commenting on the whole book, providing pre cious challenges to my reading on Kant when we disagreed and extra reasons to strengthen the points where we shared similar views. All the guests and participants of the Colloquium on Phil osophy and Global Affairs at the University of Catania indirectly helped to shape single theses defended in the book, whose prepara tory work began, perhaps not accidentally, when the Colloquium was born (2010). In a similar fashion, I profited from the discus sions with Kant scholars on occasion of the various editions of the Multilateral Kant – Colloquium and of the Clélia Martins Kant – Colloquium held in Marilia (São Paulo, Brazil). I would also like to thank some of my students, at LUISS and at the University of Catania, who attended my graduate seminar on human rights. Spe cial gratitude goes to my PhD student Nunzio Alì who followed and supported the development of my work. Immense gratitude goes to my family for the multiform emotional support and for the time they concede me to follow my interests. Besides people, I owe gratitude to institutions, in particular to the European Commission that enabled two years of study for part II at Columbia University through a Marie Curie Global Fellowship. Some of the chapters of this book appeared in different form in previous publications. A shortened version of chapter 1 appeared

viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

in theRoutledge Handbook for Human Rights (Taylor & Fran cis 2011), some of the theses offered in part II appeared recently in a paper published in theJournal of Political Philosophy(many thanks, incidentally, to its anonymous referees) and in my book La pace fraintesa(Rubbettino 2012), while chapter 8 appeared in the collective volumePolitics and Teleology in Kant(UWP 2014) edited by Paul Formosa, Avery Goldman and Tatiana Patrone. Thanks to all publishers for their permission to reprint.

List of Abbreviations

References to Kant’s works follow theAkademiepagination. The list of abbreviation is provided below. The translation of Kant’s political writings used in this book is that of H. B. Nisbet in H. Reiss (ed.),Kant, Political Writings(New York, 1991). For the parts not covered by Reiss’s edition, I use the Cambridge edition of the works of Immanuel Kant.

Anth

Br

EaD

EEKU

GMS

Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht (AA 07).Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Translated by R. B. Louden in CE: Kant, I. (2007)Anthropology, History, and Education, G. Zöller and R. B. Louden, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Briefe (AA 10–13).Correspondence. A selection from these volumes is translated by A. Zweig in CE: Kant, I. (1999)Correspondence, A. Zweig, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Das Ende aller Dinge (AA 08).The End of All Things.Translated by A. W. Wood in CE: Kant, I. (1996)Religion and Rational Theology, A. W. Wood and G. di Giovanni, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Erste Einleitung in die Kritik der Urteilskraft (AA 20).First Introduction to the Critique of the Power of Judgment. Translated by P. Guyer and E. Matthews in CE: Kant, I. (2000) Critique of the Power of Judgment, P. Guyer, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten (AA 04).Groundwork of the Metatphysiocs of Morals. Translated by M. J. Gregor in CE: Kant, I. (1996)Practical Philosophy, M. J. Gregor, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).