Abstract

This dissertation is an attempt to explicate Kant's argument for the necessity and the legitimacy of the state. Kant's theory of the state seems to be among the least studied aspects of his philosophy, and this alone would be sufficient reason to focus more attention upon it. But, in addition to suffering from inattention, what attention Kant's theory of the state has received has generally been insufficiently appreciative. Actually, Kant provides a rather coherent and cogent general argument for the necessity and the legitimacy of the state, principally in the Doctrine of Right, and with supporting arguments in a number of other works. I attempt to provide a clear exposition of this argument, so that it can be properly understood, and appreciated as I believe Kant intended. ;Kant's central claim is that people cannot enjoy their innate right to freedom if they do not live within a state. His definition of justice entails that the condition of justice is the condition of the universal realization of the innate right to freedom. Kant argues that the authorization to use coercion in support of the just condition is logically entailed in this conception of justice. Kant also argues that the innate right to freedom entails both a right in oneself, and the right to possess things external to oneself. Neither of these general rights, however, can truly be realized in proximity to others who remain in the state of nature, and, thereby, make one's right in oneself insecure, and rightful possession impossible. If people are truly to realize their innate right to freedom, then the wills of those who are in proximity to one another must be united in a common authority, which uses coercion to support the condition of justice. This authority ranges over all who are in proximity, in accord with Kant's hypothetical social contract theory, because the use of coercion to support justice cannot itself violate an individual's freedom, and because the will to be a member of such a state that supports justice follows a priori from Kant's understanding of what it is to be a human being