Abstract
The contribution of this book to international political theory is to argue for a weak universalism useful for establishing the foundations of just and fair cross-cultural dialogues. In making these claims I propose internal and external self-law giving as potentially a priori concepts and demonstrate through an engagement with key Kantian texts the origins of these arguments within this chapter. I engage not only with the work of Kant himself but also contemporary Kantians to establish a position under which we can separate Kantian morality from Kantian politics, accepting that his model of thought is suitable for both ‘angels but also for devils’ (Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 2009, p. 90). In concluding, the chapter operationalises the categories of internal and external self-law giving in to the themes of equality of individuals, self-mastery, and freedom from domination and oppression which are then analysed within the textual analysis.
The human interest in autonomy and responsibility is not mere fancy, for it can be apprehended a priori. (Habermas, 1968, p. 314)
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Bird, G.K. (2019). Kantian Framework. In: Foundations of Just Cross-Cultural Dialogue in Kant and African Political Thought. International Political Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97943-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97943-4_2
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