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Book Review: Kant’s Cosmopolitan Theory of Law and Peace
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Otfried Höffe, Kant’s Cosmopolitan Theory of Law and Peace [Königliche Völker.
Zu Kants Kosmopolitischer Rechts- und Friedenstheorie]. Trans. Alexandra
Newton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 272 pp., $70 hardcover.
J EFFREY
C HURCH
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
jchurch@nd.edu
Otfried Höffe, one of the leading voices in contemporary philosophy
and political theory in Germany, is finally gaining recognition in the
United States. His largely textual studies of Kant and Aristotle as well as philosophical
treatises on justice have already been translated (Höffe 1994, 1995,
2001, 2002). In this excellent newly translated work, Höffe combines textual
interpretation and philosophical analysis as part of his overall project to rehabilitate
Kant as a canonical political philosopher who can offer a fresh
perspective on the pressing contemporary theoretical problems surrounding
liberalism. (It is largely true that Kant does not possess the place he deserves
alongside other canonical political philosophers in Anglo-American political
theory scholarship; there is nonetheless a wealth of English-language scholarship
on Kant’s political philosophy that should not be overlooked—see
Addendum.)
Like other contemporary liberal theorists, Höffe is concerned
with finding legitimate grounding for the principles of liberalism. His particular
tack, his route through Kant, is to respond to two main problems he
encounters in contemporary political philosophy. The first problem has to do
with the perennial question of liberalism, that of the extent and justification of
government coercion over individuals. Höffe argues that a “practical antinomy”
between political dogmatism and skepticism emerges from the usual
responses to this question (114; cf. Höffe 1995, 7–8). On the one hand, legal
positivism (“political dogmatism”) assumes that there is no extra-legal justification
of institutional coercion, and hence all legal norms are “legitimate,”
while on the other hand, anarchism and some forms of critical theory (“politi-
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