The principle of right is Kant's main formulation of the rules of politics, and it has obvious affinities with the moral law. Do we have moral reasons to obey the principle? I argue that we may have moral reasons to obey the principle ourselves, but not coercively to enforce it. Do we have prudential reasons to obey the principle? I argue that we do not have reasons based on happiness, but that we may have prudential reasons of a wholly different, but distinctively Kantian kind. These may be reasons both to obey the principle ourselves and to enforce it.
ByrdB. S.1989. ‘Kant's Theory of Punishment: Deterrence in its Threat, Retribution in its Execution’, Law and Philosophy8: 151–200.
2.
FlikschuhK.2000. Kant and Modern Political Philosophy.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
GuyerP.2002. ‘Kant's Deductions of the Principles of Right’, in TimmonsM. (ed.), Kant's Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretative Essays.Oxford: Clarendon Press.
4.
HillT. E.2002. ‘Wrongdoing, Desert, and Punishment’, in Human Welfare and Moral Worth.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
HöffeO.1992. ‘“Even a Nation of Devils Needs the State’: The Dilemma of Natural Justice’, in WilliamsH. (ed.), Essays on Kant's Political Philosophy.Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
7.
KantI.1900-. Kant's gesammelte Schriften, ed. Kgl. Pr. Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin: Reimer; Berlin and Leipzig: deGruyter.
8.
KantI.1991. Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, trans. PatonH. J.. London: Routledge.
9.
KantI.1991. The Metaphysics of Morals, trans. GregorM.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10.
KorsgaardC. M.1996. ‘The Right to Lie: Kant on Dealing with Evil’, in Creating the Kingdom of Ends.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
11.
QuinnW.1993. ‘The Right to Threaten and the Right to Punish’, in Morality and Action.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
12.
SchapiroT.2003. ‘Compliance, Complicity, and the Nature of Nonideal Conditions’, The Journal of Philosophy100: 329–55.
13.
ThompsonK.2001. ‘Kant's Transcendental Deduction of Political Authority’, Kant-Studien92: 62–78.
14.
WoodA.2002. ‘The Final Form of Kant's Practical Philosophy’, in TimmonsM. (ed.), Kant's Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretative Essays.Oxford: Clarendon Press.
