Regulative Politics

Abstract

It is usually expected that the final chapter will bring with it some sort of closure. However, here we have two closures to achieve. The first is the discussion in which Kant is presented as a synthetic philosopher, one who has the various components of his system independent of each other — in this case, his epistemology and his politics — while they are still required to refer to each other and fit together coherently. The two previous chapters made it clear that the concept of the political and its manifestation as plans for progress (at least that of the Enlightenment) corresponds well with the claims of Kant’s critical theory. The political was found to be an independent concept that has its pure foundations and applications, which both promote the claims of the moral imperative and are conditioned by them. More than signifying an empirical historical plan, Enlightenment came across as a conscious moral duty to take political responsibility for their fate. Now we are left to see whether the way the political manifests itself — that is, the Enlightenment’s evolutionary nature of progress, which Kant promoted — is in accordance with the regulative status we found that belongs to ideas back in the speculative discussion.