Law, State, Republic:

LSR will defend a novel interpretation of Kant’s Doctrine of Right which will allow for a reevaluation of central issues of his political and juridical philosophy from both the historical and systematic points of view. It will also elaborate new Kantian perspectives for dealing with contemporary normative challenges in the fields of political philosophy, philosophy of law, and political and legal theory. Two groundbreaking hypotheses will be investigated.

The first hypothesis is that Kant's philosophy of law and right is permeated with reflecting teleological judgment which influences the meaning and normative content of the rational principles of right. Teleology sets up a complex relationship between the a priori and the empirical levels, between practical reason and pragmatical anthropology as well as between the procedural and dynamical aspects embodied in a specific conception of history.

The second thesis is that, on a deep methodological level, Kant's philosophy can be understood as grounded in a reflective constructivism that potentially may be developed and updated so as to serve as a powerful philosophical method for dealing with complex problems about the relationship between different forms of normativity, the issue of interdisciplinarity, and the relationship between theory and practice.

These hypotheses will serve as a foundation for investigating how Kant’s philosophy of right promises innovative solutions for issues including: the relation between external coercion and normativity within the context of the theories of juridical positivism; the requirements concerning the ideal of the rule of law; the relationship among the principles of right, history and anthropology; and, issues regarding the legitimacy of property, economic and intergenerational justice, cosmopolitanism, human rights and democracy. This project therefore has three strands: a historical, a systematic and a methodological one.