Document Type
Article
Language
eng
Format of Original
12 p.
Publication Date
1-2016
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Source Publication
The Monist
Source ISSN
0026-9662
Original Item ID
DOI: 10.1093/monist/onv025
Abstract
Kant’s treatment of war is usually discussed as part of his political philosophy or philosophy of history. In contrast, this essay locates these discussions in direct reference to major elements of his moral philosophy: autonomy, the categorical imperative, and the moral relationality of the kingdom of ends. Within this context, Kant’s account of war, particularly in writings from the 1790s, can be read as affirming war as morally unintelligible: It is the expression of a collective withdrawal from the constitutive relationality of moral community. This results in a radical disparity in the exercise of moral autonomy by the sovereign agency of the state with respect to peace, on one hand, and with respect to war, on the other.
Recommended Citation
Rossi, Philip J., "War As Morally Unintelligible: Sovereign Agency and the Limits of Kantian Autonomy" (2016). Theology Faculty Research and Publications. 552.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/theo_fac/552
Comments
Accepted version. The Monist, Vol. 99, No. 1 (January 2016): 1-12. DOI. © 2016 The Author. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Hegeler Institute. Used with permission.