Kant’s main writings on issues of global justice are found in three different works: “On the common saying: ‘That may be correct in theory, but it is of no use in practice’” (hereafter “Theory and Practice”), “Toward Perpetual Peace” (hereafter “Perpetual Peace”), and the Doctrine of Right in The Metaphysics of Morals (hereafter “Doctrine of Right”). In each of these texts, there are certain core passages that writers on Kant’s conception of global justice want to address. Because the passages are puzzling in their own right and do not immediately appear to yield an internally consistent position, together they provide wonderfully engaging textual and philosophical challenges for Kant scholars.
To begin, in each of the three texts we find some passages in which Kant appears to be arguing that global justice is in principle impossible without a global public authority. In these passages, Kant appears to affirm the need for some sort of a global public authority in order to ensure a...
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References
Kant I (1991) Idea for a universal history with a cosmopolitan purpose. In: Reiss H (ed) Kant: political writings. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 41–53
Kant I (2006) That may be correct in theory, but it is of no use in practice. In: Gregor MJ (trans and ed) Immanuel Kant: practical philosophy. Cambridge University Press, New York
Kant I (2006) Toward perpetual peace. In: Gregor MJ (trans and ed) Immanuel Kant: practical philosophy. Cambridge University Press, New York
Kant I (2006) The metaphysics of morals. In: Gregor MJ (trans and ed) Immanuel Kant: practical philosophy. Cambridge University Press, New York
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Varden, H. (2011). Kant, Immanuel. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_37
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