Elisabeth H. Ellis

Kant's best contribution to modern political theory is his dynamic account of the transition from the imperfect, provisional state toward political perfection. Scholarly attention to Kant's political philosophy has focused on his theory of the ideal state, at the expense of the far more interesting account of transition. Kant is rightly honored for his defense of human rights, of the rule of law, and of the cause of international peace; in short, for his attempt to devise a political system that would protect human freedom at every level of interaction. Nevertheless, Kant's original contribution comes not from his doctrine of the ideal state, which exemplifies moderate enlightened political thought of his time, but from his theory of the conditions of the gradual approximation of that state in practice. This dissertation traces the development of this line of reasoning from the Critique of Pure Reason through the Conflict of Faculties, setting Kant's arguments in the contexts of his predecessors in social contract theory and of his contemporaries in the Berlin Enlightenment. ;Over the course of his writing, Kant proposes a number of different accounts of the political progress that would result from the application of ideal judgment to political practice: the public sphere in "What is Enlightenment?" teleological history in Critique of Judgment, formal principles of publicity in "Perpetual Peace," provisional right in the Rechtslehre, and the judging public in Conflict of Faculties . Though the specific elements of these solutions vary, the main lines of Kant's argument remain the same throughout his work: progress toward the just state results from comparisons made by some human agents between rational ideals and empirical reality. However Kant arranges his various proposed institutions, the human judges of right need to be isolated from all but the interests of reason, not only to ensure their freedom to reason from a possibly punishing government, but also to prevent the corruption of this reason by the temptations of power itself. Over the long run, the interplay of public judgments should lead to the advent of more enlightened political institutions and practices

Social contract thought has always contained multiple and mutually conflicting lines of argument; the minimalist contractarianism so influential today represents the weaker of two main constellations of claims. I make the case for a Kantian contract theory that emphasizes the bedrock principle of consent of the governed instead of the mere heuristic device of the exit from the state of nature. Such a shift in emphasis resolves two classic difficulties: tradi- tional contract theory’s ahistorical presumption of a pre-political settlement, and its impossibly high demands on citizens seeking to practice self-rule. Kant’s solutions to these problems of property rights and citizenship are found in his political works, rather than the ethical works through which Kant’s political theory is usually interpreted.

The Encyclopedia of Political Thought is the most comprehensive and rigorous treatment of significant political thinkers, political theories, concepts, ideas, and schools of thought. Comprises over 900 A-Z entries, including brief definitions, biographies, and major topics, written by a team of 700 contributors from around the world Explores key theories and theorists, including non-western perspectives, in tracing the evolution of political thought from antiquity to the present day Published in association with The Foundations of Political Theory, an organized section of the American Political Science Association 8 Volumes www.encyclopediaofpoliticalthought.com.

Kant’s brilliant original contributions to political thought cannot be understood without attention to his dynamic concept of provisional right, argues Elisabeth Ellis in this book—the first comprehensive interpretation of Kant’s political theory. Kant’s notion of provisional right applies to existing institutions and practices that are consistent with the possibility of progress. Ellis traces this idea through Kant’s works and demonstrates that the concept of provisional right can be used both to illuminate contemporary theoretical debates and to generate policy implications. In this new interpretation, Kant’s provisionalism provides a broad standard for political right that remains deeply responsive to historical and geographical particulars, directing our attention to the dynamism between our world and our ideals. Ellis offers us Kant for our time—worldly, pragmatic, and intensely committed to the everyday pursuit of human freedom