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The Kingdom of Friends: Reconstructing Fraternity in Kantian Liberalism

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Abstract

Liberalism assumes a number of political values that are central to its popular appeal. Historically, fraternity was an additional value that called on citizens to consider themselves part of a civic community. While contemporary liberalism has placed significant emphasis on the values that promote individualism – liberty and equality – it has rarely referred to fraternity as a value. Yet, a robust version of fraternity is either existent or possible in at least one liberal’s, Kant’s, version of liberalism. Drawing upon Kant’s notions of unity and friendship in his moral and religious writings to show how Kant conceived of fraternity in its private sense, I offer textual evidence of these concepts spilling over into Kant’s theory of right. In so doing, I reconstruct a version of Kantian fraternity that is consistent with Kant’s broader theory of right in an effort to give fraternity a greater role in classical liberalism.

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Notes

  1. Cohen (1992); Cohen (2000); Estlund (1998).

  2. Taylor and Abbey (1996); Sandel (1982).

  3. Smith et al. (2009).

  4. Schuck (2000).

  5. Desilver (2016).

  6. Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, 12.

  7. Geuss (2002a, 2002b).

  8. Compare Denis (2001a, 2001b) and Papadaki (2010a, 2010b) with Korsgaard (1996) and Bramer (2010a, 2010b)

  9. Kleingeld (2000b); Kleingeld (2003a, 2003b)

  10. Stilz (2009).

  11. Ibid., 151-54.

  12. Kant (1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 1996d, 1996e, 1996f, 1996g, 1996h, 1996i, 1996j, 1996k, 1996l) (hereinafter cited as “CPrR”).

  13. Kant, 1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 1996d, 1996e, 1996f, 1996g, 1996h, 1996i, 1996j, 1996k, 1996l(hereinafter cited as “MM”).

  14. Kant (1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 1996d, 1996e, 1996f, 1996g, 1996h, 1996i, 1996j, 1996k, 1996l) (hereinafter cited as “GMM”).

  15. MM, 378.

  16. GMM, 53-60.

  17. MM, 375-76.

  18. Kant (1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 1996d, 1996e, 1996f, 1996g, 1996h, 1996i, 1996j, 1996k, 1996l) (hereinafter cited as “CS”); Kant (1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 1996d, 1996e, 1996f, 1996g, 1996h, 1996i, 1996j, 1996k, 1996l) (hereinafter cited as “TPP”).

  19. MM, 457.

  20. CS, 292; TPP, 322.

  21. CS, 292.

  22. MM, 458.

  23. CS, 295.

  24. MM, 458.

  25. Kant (1970) (hereinafter cited as “IUH”).

  26. IUH, 42.

  27. Ibid., 43-45.

  28. Schneewind (1992a, 1992b).

  29. Guyer (2000a, 2000b).

  30. IUH, 45.

  31. Ibid., 45-46.

  32. Ibid., 51.

  33. O’Neill (1989).

  34. Kant (1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 1996d, 1996e, 1996f, 1996g, 1996h, 1996i, 1996j, 1996k, 1996l) (hereinafter cited as “RBMR”).

  35. RBMR, 131.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Ibid., 133.

  38. Ibid., 131.

  39. Ibid., 132

  40. Wood (1992a, 1992b).

  41. RBMR, 135.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Ibid., 176.

  44. Ibid., 166.

  45. Ibid., 212-13.

  46. Kant (1997) (hereinafter cited as “LE”); Wood (1999).

  47. LE, 186; Wood, Kant’s Ethical Thought, 282.

  48. MM, 584; Sullivan (1989).

  49. Herman (1993).

  50. Korsgaard, Creating the Kingdom of Ends, 193-94.

  51. MM, 530-31.

  52. Ibid., 587; Sullivan, Immanuel Kant’s Moral Theory, 359.

  53. GMM, 53-54; Allison (1990)

  54. CS, 303.

  55. MM, 455, 468.

  56. Ibid., 456.

  57. Ibid., 461.

  58. Ibid., 458; GMM, 83.

  59. GMM, 100.

  60. CS, 295.

  61. GMM, 64.

  62. Ibid., 65; CS, 295; MM, 458.

  63. MM, 587.

  64. Ibid., 482.

  65. Kleingeld, “Kant’s Cosmopolitan Patriotism,” 313.

  66. MM, 460.

  67. CS, 291.

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  1. Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, P.O. Box 4004, Eau Claire, WI, 54702-4004, USA

    Adam Scott Kunz

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Kunz, A.S. The Kingdom of Friends: Reconstructing Fraternity in Kantian Liberalism. Philosophia 50, 1223–1241 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-021-00432-5

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