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Series:   Elements in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant

The Moral Foundation of Right

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2024

Paul Guyer
Paul Guyer
Affiliation:
Brown University

Summary

Kant defined 'Right' (Recht) as the condition that obtains among a population of physically embodied persons capable of setting their own ends who live on a finite surface and therefore cannot avoid interaction with each other if each is as free to set their own ends as is consistent with the freedom of all to do the same. He regarded this rational idea, heir to the traditional idea of 'natural Right, as the test of the legitimacy of the laws of any actual state, or 'positive Right.' He clearly considered Right to be part of morality as a whole, namely the coercively enforceable part, as contrasted to Ethics, which is the non-coercively enforceable part of morality. Some have questioned whether Right is part of morality, but this Element shows how Kant's "Universal Principle of Right" follows straightforwardly from the foundational idea of Kant's moral philosophy as a whole.
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Keywords

Freedomrighthumanitythe stateKant
Type
Element
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Series: Elements in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant
Online ISBN: 9781009464505
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 16 January 2025

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The Moral Foundation of Right
  • Paul Guyer, Brown University
  • Online ISBN: 9781009464505
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The Moral Foundation of Right
  • Paul Guyer, Brown University
  • Online ISBN: 9781009464505
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