Abstract
In Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason Kant speaks of an ethical state of nature and of an ethico-civil condition, with explicit reference to the juridical state of nature and the juridico-civil condition he discusses at length in his legal-political writings. Given that the Religion is the only work where Kant introduces a parallel between these concepts, one might think that this is only a loose analogy, serving a merely illustrative function. The paper provides a first outline of the similarities and the differences between the state of nature and the civil condition in Right and in ethics. The comparison points to a deeper, structural relation between the two pairs of concepts. By doing so, it makes room for developing a unitary conception of the state of nature and of the civil condition, which would underlie both the ethical and the juridical version.
Highlights
In Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason (1793), Kant speaks of an “ethical state of nature [der ethische Naturzustand]” and of an “ethically civil condition [ein ethisch-bürgerlicher Zustand],” with explicit reference to the “juridical state of nature [der juridische Naturzustand]” and the “juridically civil condition [ein rechtlich-bürgerlicher Zustand]”1 he discusses at length in his writings on legal-political philosophy—most notably, his 1797 Doctrine of Right
What matters for my purposes is that thanks to its mediated nature, Glaube in God as moral legislator and ruler, the core component of pure rational faith, is based on grounds that are communicable, namely, the Highest Good. This means that, unlike the historical element of religion, which likely falls under mere opining in virtue of the idiosyncratic, private nature of its grounds, pure rational faith is based on shareable, public grounds.75. This is supported by the fact that in the Religion Kant mentions the Highest Good in the context of his argument for the duty to exit the ethical state of nature: here we have a duty of its own kind ... the furtherance of the highest good as a common good
This paper suggested that Kant’s use of the notions of the state of nature and of the civil condition in the ethical-religious sphere goes beyond merely illustrative purposes
Summary
In Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason (1793), Kant speaks of an “ethical state of nature [der ethische Naturzustand]” and of an “ethically civil condition [ein ethisch-bürgerlicher Zustand],” with explicit reference to the “juridical state of nature [der juridische Naturzustand]” and the “juridically civil (political) condition [ein rechtlich-bürgerlicher (politischer) Zustand]”1 he discusses at length in his writings on legal-political philosophy—most notably, his 1797 Doctrine of Right. Given that the Religion is the only work where Kant develops this parallel, one might be inclined to think that this is a loose analogy, which he introduces merely for illustrative purposes. According to this line of thought, it would be mainly for reasons of convenience that Kant employs that legal-political terminology in the ethical-religious sphere, but the relation between the two families of concepts. The comparison points to a deeper, structural relation between the two pairs of concepts By doing so, it makes room for developing a unitary conception of the state of nature and of the civil condition, which would underlie both the ethical and the juridical version. I articulate the function of the ethico-civil condition into three dimensions: political (§4.1), moral-organisational (§4.2), and moral proper (§§4.3–4)
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