Kant's Politics: Provisional Theory for an Uncertain World

Abstract

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. This book does for Kant's political thought what Manfred Kuhn's magisterial biography did for general Kant studies. Ellis's key contribution is her argument that takes Kant's theory of provisional right as his central political concept. Reading Kant's political theory in any other way from now on will be difficult. Mika LaVaque-Manty, University of Michigan