Republicity. Kant’s late extension oftranscendentality to politics and right

Abstract

The contribution investigates Kant‘s extension of transcendental-philosophical thinking from the critique of purely theoretical reason to his late political and legal philosophy. The focus lies on the transcendental ingredients of Kant’s juridico-political thinking in general and on the “transcendental concept” and the “transcendental principle” of publicity in particular. The first section outlines the original project of transcendental philosophy in the Critique of Pure Reason. The second sectiontracks the introduction of transcendental features outside of transcendental philosophy proper beginning in the Critique of thePower of Judgment. The third section is devoted to the role of publicity as the “transcendental principle” for a politics conformingto juridical right in Toward Perpetual Peace. The fourth section presents the distinction between private right and public right inthe Metaphysics of Morals under the quasi-transcendental perspective of rendering permanent the previously provisional claims ofprivate right by means of the institution of public right.