Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T22:49:14.134Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Paradoxes in Kant's Account of Citizenship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2013

Ronald Beiner
Affiliation:
professor of political science at the University
Charlton Payne
Affiliation:
Universität Erfurt, Germany
Lucas Thorpe
Affiliation:
Bogaziçi University, Turkey
Get access

Summary

What are we to make of Kant as a philosopher of citizenship? In order to begin answering this question, we need to determine how exalted Kant intends the status of citizen to be, especially in relation to the forms of moral experience that for Kant are decisive in conferring moral worth upon us as rational beings; and clarifying this turns out to be anything but a simple matter. In a very direct sense, our status as citizens constitutes a nonmoral status, for the domain of politics per se refers to forms of civic behavior that can be regulated by laws—i.e., state coercion—and therefore civic life doesn't (and cannot) touch that which for Kant defines moral experience: the quality of our intentions or of our ultimate motivation. This is why Kant famously says that a race of intelligent devils could in principle devise a perfectly satisfactory political constitution: as long as we, for instance, pay our taxes, what is demanded of us in the political aspect of our life is fulfilled (even if the moral worth of these civic performances is precisely zero).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×