Kant and the Problem of Politics: Rethinking the Contemporary World

This book examines the significance of Kant’s political philosophy in the context of contemporary philosophical and political debates. In the last few decades, Kantian specialists have increasingly manifested a purely exegetic and philological interest in Kant’s oeuvre, while contemporary philosophers and scientists tend to use Kant with scant hermeneutical care, thus misrepresenting or misunderstanding his positions. This volume countervails these tendencies by focusing more on specific themes of contemporary relevance in Kant’s writings. It looks to Kant’s political thought for insight on tackling issues such as freedom of speech, democracy and populism, intergenerational justice, economic inequality, money, poverty, international justice and gender/feminism.

Featuring readings by well-known Kant specialists and emerging scholars with unorthodox approaches to Kant’s philosophy, the volume fills a significant gap in the existing scholarship on the philosopher and his works. It will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of philosophy, politics and ethics.

Luigi Caranti is Professor of Political Philosophy at the Università di Catania. He focuses on Kant, human rights, peace studies and distributive justice. Principal investigator of numerous EU-funded research projects, he is currently coordinating the Marie Curie Rise project “Kant in South America”. Among his recent publications are The Kantian Federation (2022), (ed. with D. Celentano) Paradigms of Justice: Redistribution, Recognition and Beyond (2021) and Kant’s Political Legacy: Human Rights, Peace, Progress (2017).

Alessandro Pinzani is Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis (Brazil), and, since 2006, a fellow researcher of CNPq (Brazilian Research Council). His publications include Jürgen Habermas (2007), An den Wurzeln moderner Demokratie (2009) and Money, Autonomy, and Citizenship (with W. Leão Rego, 2018).