This essay argues that Kant’s conception of regulative ideas of practical reason introduced in the Critique of Pure Reason serves an important twofold function in his political philosophy. First, Kant’s version of the ideal, Platonic republic acts as the a priori paradigm of a rightful state to which existing regimes can and should conform. Second, Kant frames the regulative status of such practical ideas as a resolution of the conflict between the extremes of dogmatism and skepticism. In his principal political (...) writings from the 1790s—i. e., “Theory and Practice,” “Perpetual Peace,” and the Doctrine of Right—Kant draws on his account of practical ideas in the Critique to articulate a counterfactual norm of popular sovereignty that distinguishes his political standpoint from opponents on the left and the right. Radicals repeat the error of the dogmatists by affirming that the norm of collective self-legislation is completely attainable in experience. By contrast, conservatives make the mistake of the skeptics by denying that rational political standards can be applied to reality at all. I show that Kant reconciles these extremes through his model of gradual, non-violent political reform guided by the regulative ideal of a perfectly self-legislating state. (shrink)

This is a translation of selections from Part One, Chapter One of Rehberg's Investigations, which contains his critique of the philosophical principles animating the French Revolution. No English translation of the text currently exists. The Investigations was one of the most influential philosophical treatments of the Revolution in eighteenth-century Germany and remains an important specimen of ‘Kantian’ political theory from the 1790s. The Investigations had a clear impact on Kant's political philosophy and the work of the early Fichte. The translation (...) is accompanied by an editorial introduction that introduces the reader to Rehberg and outlines his core arguments. (shrink)