Categorical Principles of Law

A Counterpoint to Modernity
Suhrkamp | Insel
Rights sold to:

English world rights (Penn State UP), Chinese simplex rights (The Commercial Press)


Categorical Principles of Law / Kategorische Rechtsprinzipien
A Counterpoint to Modernity

Categorical principles of law plead in favour of understanding modernity as a polyphonous project to be read on three levels. They formulate a theoretical programme in which ethics, legal theory and social philosophy form a connection. And it is precisely from this connection that new light is shed on modernity: In the field of legal theory, the categorical principles raise their voice against a merely empirical-pragmatic thinking; in the field of social theory they form a counterpoint to a...

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Categorical principles of law plead in favour of understanding modernity as a polyphonous project to be read on three levels. They formulate a theoretical programme in which ethics, legal theory and social philosophy form a connection. And it is precisely from this connection that new light is shed on modernity: In the field of legal theory, the categorical principles raise their voice against a merely empirical-pragmatic thinking; in the field of social theory they form a counterpoint to a theory of radical and exclusive plurality; and finally, they promote – albeit indirectly – a polyphonous self-understanding of modernity.


»Kantian theories of law and politics are not well understood in English-language philosophy, which has tended to ignore Kant’s actual writings on these topics in favor of his more foundational ethical works, from which philosophers often draw erroneous inferences about what the ›Kantian‹ view must be on issues of applied ethics and political philosophy. Höffe’s book is a much-needed presentation of a contemporary Kantian position by a leading German philosopher of law, containing a thoughtful critical response to the positions of Rawls and Habermas.« Allen Wood, Stanford University

»The book offers a highly interesting critical reinterpretation and defense of Kant’s doctrine of right.« Lars Vinx, Ethics

»Kantian theories of law and politics are not well understood in English-language philosophy, which has tended to ignore Kant’s actual writings on these topics in favor of his more foundational ethical works, from which philosophers often draw erroneous inferences about what the ›Kantian‹ view must be on issues of applied ethics and political philosophy. Höffe’s book is a much-needed presentation of a contemporary Kantian position by a leading German philosopher of law, containing a...

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1994, 431 pages
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Otfried Höffe is professor emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen's Law School.

Otfried Höffe is professor emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen's Law School.


OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Kant's Cosmopolitan Theory of Law and Peace
Year of Publication: 2001
Otfried HöffeYear of Publication: 2001

Kant is widely acknowledged for his critique of theoretical reason, also for his universalistic ethics and maybe too for his theory of aesthetics. Yet the fact that he is also a preeminent...

Rights sold to:

Chinese simplex rights (The Commercial Press)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Cambridge UP)

Political Justice
Year of Publication: 1989
Otfried HöffeYear of Publication: 1989

»The book strives after nothing less than ›re-examining the philisophical discourse on justice‹ from Classical Greece to the present day. It defends the possibility of...

Rights sold to:

English world rights (Polity), Chinese simplex rights (The Commercial Press)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Paidos Iberica), Russia (Gnosis), Brazilian Portuguese rights (WMF), Italy (Il Mulino), Japan (Hosei UP), Poland (Centre for Political Thought), Iran (Našr-i Aḫtaran)