Dissertation |
Reconstructing the Kantian Cosmopolitan Project
Abstract: The processes unleashed by globalization make global governance increasingly necessary. But the legitimacy of the emerging institutional arrangements is increasingly contested. There is thus, today, a renewed impetus for the philosophical project of justifying the reform of global governance institutions in a democratic direction. My central concern is to understand what it takes for political philosophy to carry out this project successfully. I develop a framework for analyzing, categorizing, and assessing efforts by political philosophers to justify action-guiding institutional prescriptions. I then apply this framework to debates about global governance among the central figures of Kantian tradition. I focus on the complex role that judgments about feasibility play in those debates, and show that this focus is necessary for any adequate understanding of them. Finally, I use the framework to motivate a way of building upon the existing debates in order to articulate a compelling sketch of the Kantian cosmopolitan project for our time.
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