On Serpents and Doves: the systematic relationship between prudence and morality in Kant’s political philosophy

Abstract

Abstract This paper argues that the political adage “Be ye prudent as serpents and guileless as doves” involves three different types of relation between prudence and morality, namely: unification (Vereinigung), subordination (Unterordnung), and association (Beigesellung). I maintain that these relations are set up according to the same principle that determines the relationship between mechanical and teleological causality in the third Critique. Thus, I argue that morality and prudence are much more systematically related within the system of critical philosophy than is normally assumed in the literature and that this is made possible by way of an intimate relationship between prudence and teleological judgment.