GERST 6940 - [Kant’s Political Reason]

(crosslisted)
(also COML 6015, GOVT 6746, PHIL 6239)

4 credits.

Next offered 2015-2016.

P. Gilgen.

In this course, we will examine the political stakes of Kant’s philosophical revolution. We will compare the political consequences of Kantian epistemology and ethics with Kant’s writings that deal explicitly with questions of politics and political theory. The latter are, as is well known, considerably more tentative and less systematic. In addition, they pose some extremely difficult hermeneutic challenges. The main focus of our readings will be (1) Kant’s position regarding political revolutions and (2) his theory of cosmopolitanism.