ABSTRACT
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is best known not for his political philosophy, but for his three Critiques of the powers of reason. Kant’s first explicit work of political philosophy appeared when he was already 60 years old (1784); most of his writings on the subject are essays written for a wider audience, such as “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose” (1784), “On the Common Saying: That May be Correct in Theory, but is of No Use in Practice” (1792), and “Toward Perpetual Peace” (1795), while his most systematic treatment of political philosophy is part of a treatise on legal philosophy, the Doctrine of Right (1797). (I refer to Kant’s texts citing volume and page number of the Prussian Academy edition of Kants gesammelte Schriften, Berlin: de Gruyter, 1902-.)
Nonetheless, Kant’s work has had a profound influence on contemporary political philosophers, such as John Rawls and Robert Nozick (Rawls 1971: 10, 121f., 221-7; Nozick 1974: 32). More importantly, Kant has crucially shaped the notions of autonomy, dignity, and respect for persons which are central to modern political life.
