Books

Kant on Freedom and Human Nature, edited by Luigi Filieri and Sofie MøllerInvited speaker: "Hindsight and foresight in Kant’s historical sign" at the conference Freiheit der Forschung / Freedom of Research Der Streit der Fakultät heute / nowadays, University of Padova

The essays in this volume provide new readings of Kant’s account of human nature.

Despite the relevance of human nature to Kant’s philosophy, little attention has been paid to the fact that the question about human nature originally pertains to pure reason. The chapters in this volume show that Kant’s point is not to state once and for all what the human being actually is, but to unite pure reason’s efforts within a unitary teleological perspective. The question about human nature is the cornerstone of reason’s unity in its different activities and domains. Kant’s question about human nature goes beyond our empirical inquiries to show that the notion of humanity represents the point of convergence and unity of pure reason’s most fundamental interests.

Kant's Tribunal of Reason. Legal Metaphor and Normativity in the Critique of Pure Reason

Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, his main work of theoretical philosophy, frequently uses metaphors from law. In this first book-length study in English of Kant's legal metaphors and their role in the first Critique, Sofie Møller shows that they are central to Kant's account of reason. Through an analysis of the legal metaphors in their entirety, she demonstrates that Kant conceives of reason as having a structure mirroring that of a legal system in a natural right framework. Her study shows that Kant's aim is to make cognisers become similar to authorized judges within such a system, by proving the legitimacy of the laws and the conditions under which valid judgments can be pronounced. These elements consolidate her conclusion that reason's systematicity is legal systematicity.

Reviews

‘The simplest objection to Kant's Critical project – the claim that reason cannot critique itself – is one that Kant himself not only anticipated but largely answered.  Moller shows how Kant's extensive legal metaphors throughout the Critique of Pure Reason form a coherent whole intended to explain the basis of reason's self-critique.  She provides the best explanation yet of how Kant defended his critical project, one that also reveals Kant's deep understanding of natural law theory.'

Frederick Rauscher - Michigan State University

‘… offers the reader a detailed and historically rich account of the legal terminology that Kant adopts or references. Møller’s book is a wonderful antidote to the sense one sometimes has, even when one reads Kant in the original, that one is still reading a slightly different and distant language.’

Source: Kantian Review

Articles

"Kant and Fichte on freedom and citizens’ assent", Kantian Review (forthcoming)

“Kant’s Metaphors and Analogies,” in Kant on Language, edited by Konstantin Pollok and Luigi Filieri (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

“Constructing reason”, Kantian Review 28, no. 3 (2023): 467–76. Part of Author Meets Critics on Lea Ypi’s The Architectonic of Reason 

“What is humanity?” in Kant on Freedom and Human Nature, edited by Sofie Møller and Luigi Filieri (London: Routledge Press, 2023).

“Onora O’Neill” in Rawls-Handbuch. Leben – Werk – Wirkung, edited by Johannes J. Frühbauer, Michael Reder and Thomas M. Schmidt (Wiesbaden: Metzler-Verlag, 2023).

“On law and morality – the case of Nazi legal theory“, Jurisprudence, 14:2, 275-281 (2023). Part of Author Meets Critics on Herlinde Pauer Studer's Justifying Injustice

“Hindsight and Foresight in Kant’s Historical Sign.” Studi Kantiani, no. 35 (2022)

“How Moral Neuroenhancement Impacts Autonomy and Agency,” Bioethics, (2022)

“Honeste vive and legal personality in Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals”, in Kant on Moral Worth, edited by Christoph Horn and Robinson Dos Santos (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2022).

Quid Juris and Judicial Imputation”, in Proceedings of the 13th International Kant Congress ‘The Court of Reason’ (Oslo, 6-9 August 2019), edited by Camilla Serck-Hanssen and Beatrix Himmelmann (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2022)

“Kant on Non-linear Progress”, Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics Vol. 23:2 (2021): 127-147.

“Zurechnung und Rechtsprechung bei Achenwall“, Rechtsphilosophie – Zeitschrift für die Grundlagen des Rechts Vol. 6:4 (2020): 388-98.

“The Politics of Reason,” in Reason, Rights and Law: New Essays on Kantian Philosophy, edited by Alice Pinheiro Walla and Mehmet Ruhi Demiray (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2020), pp. 61-81.

“Normative orders in Kantian Thought,“ in Navigating the Frontiers of Normative Orders, edited by Matthias Kettemann (Frankfurt am Main, Campus Verlag, 2020), pp. 95-105.

“Human Rights Jurisprudence Seen through the Framework of Kant’s Legal Metaphors,” in Kantian Theory and Human Rights, edited by Reidar Maliks and Andreas Føllesdal (London: Routledge, 2013), pp. 52–69.

“The Court of Reason in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason,” Kant-Studien Vol. 104:3 (2013): 301-20.

Book reviews

Review of Zur Positivität des Rechts in der kritischen Naturrechtslehre Immanuel Kants: Eine Studie zum metaphysischen Begriff des provisorisch-rechtlichen Besitzes by Heuser, Martin in Zeitschrift für Rechtsphilosophie (2023).

Review of Das Verhältnis von Recht und Ethik in Kants praktischer Philosophie, edited by Bernd Dörflinger, Dieter Hüning, and Günter Kruck in Studi Kantiani (forthcoming).

Review of The Emergence of Autonomy in Kant’s Moral Philosophy, edited by Stefano Bacin and Oliver Sensen in Studi Kantiani Vol. 33 (2020): 217-220.

Review of The Faculties of the Human Mind and the Case of Moral Feeling in Kant’s Philosophy by Falduto, Antonino. Studi Kantiani Vol. 30 (2017): 249.

“Rethinking Kant as a Public Intellectual,” review essay on Kant’s Politics in Context by Reidar Maliks in European Journal of Political Theory Vol. 16:1 (2017): 100–108.