Introduction

Abstract

Almost ten years before having drafted the text “The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with That of the Moderns” (1988),¹ Benjamin Constant published a pamphlet entitled “Political Reactions” (1998).² There, he criticized a “German philosopher” for holding a view that made society impossible, namely, that truthfulness was a person’s unconditional obligation (Constant 1998: 493). One year later, Kant replied to this pamphlet by arguing against the legal implications of Constant’s criticism, to wit, against “a supposed right to lie from philanthropy” (VRML: 8:425, 611).