Kant's Provisionality Thesis. Issue 3 (September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: MESSINA, J. P.
• Is Part Of: Kantian review. Volume 24:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 439
• Page End: 463
• Publication Date: 2019-09
• Subjects: provisional right, -- legitimacy, -- global justice, -- Kant; Neo-Kantianism -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 142.305
• DOI: 10.1017/S1369415419000207
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-4154

Abstract

Abstract: I argue that Kant's mature political philosophy entails the provisionality thesis. The provisionality thesis asserts that in a world like ours, populated with beings sufficiently like us, acquired rights (rights to external objects of choice, including property, sovereignty and territory) are necessarily provisional. I motivate the standard view, which restricts the notion of provisional right to the state of nature and the transition from the state of nature to the civil condition. I then provide two textual arguments against it. I conclude by reflecting on the normative implications of the provisionality thesis, arguing that they are more modest than has been formerly appreciated.