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The Perpetual Peace Puzzle: Kant on persons and states

Holland, Ben

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Abstract

Kant described the state as a ‘moral person’, and did so when dealing with international relations. For all the interest in his contribution to the theory of global politics, the locution according to which Kant characterized the state has received very little attention. When notice has been taken of it, the moral personality of the state has moved arguments in opposing directions. On one recent reading, when Kant called the state a moral person he intended to indicate that it possessed certain duties to itself and to others, for the sake of which it could be coerced to leave the international state of nature. On another, the juridical compulsion of states to join a state of nations or world republic is categorically ruled out because this would impair their moral personality. Both cannot be right. In this paper, I analyze Kant’s notion of moral personhood, contextualizing it within his wider philosophical concerns. On the basis of this groundwork I put forward an argument about Kant’s theory of the moral person of the state which allows me to show how he in fact was able coherently to incorporate two seemingly contradictory arguments about the state as an international actor in a single argument, and present this as my solution to what I call the Perpetual Peace Puzzle.

Citation

Holland, B. (2017). The Perpetual Peace Puzzle: Kant on persons and states. Philosophy and Social Criticism, 43(6), 599-620. https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453716680128

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 26, 2016
Online Publication Date Nov 24, 2016
Publication Date Jul 31, 2017
Deposit Date Oct 27, 2016
Publicly Available Date Nov 24, 2016
Journal Philosophy and Social Criticism
Print ISSN 0191-4537
Electronic ISSN 1461-734X
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 43
Issue 6
Pages 599-620
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453716680128
Keywords Kant, The state, World state, Federation, Moral law, Moral person, International relations theory, Right, Duty, Virtue
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/875017
Publisher URL http://psc.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/24/0191453716680128
Additional Information Copyright © 2016 by SAGE Publications
Contract Date Oct 27, 2016

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