Kant's Theory of the State
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Description
Immanuel Kant’s theory of what we owe to the state presents an important alternative to traditional consent-based, utilitarian, and fairness-based accounts. On the consent-based approach, we are obligated to the state because we have consented to its authority; its authority is supposed to be based on a choice we made between two morally permissible alternatives (give one’s consent to, or withhold one’s consent from state authority). On Kant’s theory, however, withholding one’s consent is impermissible. According to the utilitarian approach, the state’s claim on us is based on the benefits it provides for others; and on the fairness approach, its claim on us is based on the moral unacceptability of our accepting these benefits without contributing our fair share to their provision. On Kant’s theory, however, the state’s claim on us has to do not with any benefits that we receive, but with a change in the moral quality—indeed, the moral legitimacy—of certain actions of ours when they are performed under the auspices of a framework of positive law. His, therefore, is a challenging and unconventional theory of what we owe to the state, and it requires careful explication. The first step in such an explication is to figure out exactly what the state is, according to Kant, and to see whether his conception of the state differs from the conception that is used in political philosophy and social theory generally.
Source Publication
Toward Perpetual Peace and Other Writings on Politics, Peace, and History
Source Editors/Authors
Pauline Kleingeld
Publication Date
2006
Recommended Citation
Waldron, Jeremy, "Kant's Theory of the State" (2006). Faculty Chapters. 1602.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1602
