Kant

Only in the last half-century or so has Immanuel Kant come to be generally recognized as an important contributor to Western political thought. Although he wrote no single systematic treatise on political affairs, he produced a large body of essays germane to the subject as well as a sustained discussion of key concepts in a first part of his Metaphysics of Morals. Consequently, the process of interpreting Kantian political ideas involves the reader in a reconstructive project of piecing together a coherent theory out of various texts. The present chapter surveys several main scholarly debates about the nature of Kant’s political philosophy, such as whether it is teleological or non-teleological and thus whether it falls into the realm of ideal or non-ideal theory. Also considered are his views about freedom, the social contract, war and peace, cosmopolitanism, race, and ethnicity, all topics about which he wrote a great deal. Finally, the question is addressed of whether Kant’s position on salient issues changed or evolved over the course of his career.