Law, Freedom And Force

his thought in the large part is from his theoretical philosophy and moral philosophy.But in the past fifty years, his legal and political philosophy attracted people again asRawls and Habermas claimed those theories's Kantian root. People's interest was focusupon his neglected work Rechtlehre which systematically articulated his legal andpolitical philosophy.The purpose of this essay is not to articulate every aspects of Kant's legalphilosophy, especially his theory of private law and public law, but the Introduction ofRechtlehre, ie, the basic character and structure of his legal theory which constitutes aprecondition for understanding his legal and political philosophy. Apart from theIntroduction, this essay is divided into two part: the first part want to clarify the basiccharacter of his legal philosophy. The task of this part is to clarity the place of histheory of Right in (1)the history of legal and political thought; (2)in his criticalphilosophy and (3)in his moral philosophy.The first chapter will clarity the place of kant's legal philosophy in the history ofwestern legal and political thought. I place Kant's thought in the context of his time,especially the debate about the priority of reason over will or the priority of will overreason. Those position can be summarize as intellectualism(the school ofLeibniz-Wolff) and voluntarism(Hobbes-Pufendorf-Thomasius). I will argue thatKant's standpoint can be understood as an attempt to synthesize the two tradition.The second chapter will clarity the relation between Kant's critical philosophy andhis political philosophy. Kant's critical philosophy is not only a critique of the facultiesof human mind, but also is a critique of the fundamental political conditions of huamnbeings. The dogmatism in metaphysics is related to despotism in politics, andscepticism to anarchism. It is indicated that critical philosophy, as an alternative todogmatism and scepticism, must have a countpart in politics. The purpose of thischapter is to reveal the similarity in the spiritual style between Kant's critical philsophyand his political thought. The politcal expression of critical philosophy is republicanism. It has three elements: political authority, rule of law and politicalfreedom. Its ultimate objective is perpetual peace.The third chapter will clarity the place of Kant's Doctrine of Right in his moralphilosophy. This essay gives a critical assessment of some Kant scholars'debate overwhether his Rechtlehre can be a part of his metaphysics of moral. I will argue that thebasic principles of right can not directly deduce from his basic principle of moralphilosophy, ie. the category of imperative. In other words, the category of imperative isa necessary but not sufficient condition of the basic principles of right.The second part want to clarity the basic structure of his theory of Right. Itincludes articulating his concept of Recht and his theory of juridical state(Rechtsstaat).This article concluded that the spirit of Kant's legal and political philsophy isembodied in his theory of juridical state, ie. establishing a republic which include threeelements: political authority, rule of law and political freedom. Its ultimate objective isperpetual peace.