The scales of right and the sword of justice. The philosopher and the lawyer in Kant´s Doctrine of Right

BEADE, ILEANA

Lisboa

Congreso; IX Multilateral Kant Colloquium: Justice, Peace, and Cosmopolitan Values; 2021

Universidad de Lisboa

Within the frame of Kant´s political and juridical philosophy, the right to free expression is vindicated as a fundamental right of every human being. However, in certain texts Kant points out the importance of guaranteeing this freedom to philosophers, since the progress of civil institutions depends on that. In Toward perpetual peace (1795) and in The conflict of the faculties (1798), he seems to assign to philosophers a particular responsibility related to the public defense of natural rights, and compares that role to the one of lawyers. The aim of this presentation is to analyze the opposition between both roles in order to consider the specific role assigned to philosophy in the improvement of civil institutions. As we shall see, those roles cannot be directly identified: whereas the lawyer should apply positive laws in order to dispense justice, the philosopher should reflect on them and regard their correspondence with natural laws, with the purpose of deciding their legitimacy. Through a rational and critical reflection, the philosopher should promote the improvement of the juridical system (in the field of Political Right, as well as in the field of International Right and Cosmopolitan Right). My discussion of this topic will attempt not only to emphasize the important task Kant assigns to philosophy, but also to consider the articulation of natural law and legal positivism in his Doctrine of Right.