Direito de resistência e revolução política na filosofia prática de Immanuel Kant

Abstract

This work aims to investigate and reorganize in a systematic way some problems related to the right of resistance and political revolution according to Immanuel Kant’s Practical Philosophy. The work is divided into three chapters. The first one is dedicated to a presentation of Kant’s Political Philosophy in its great lines. In order to enforce the referred systematic aspect of this inquiry, it is first of all examined the normativity as a content of the idea of republic which is a common element already outlined in the Critique of Pure Reason and then consolidated through the conception of a necessary connection between the domains of morals and law. In the second chapter, based on the practical structure proposed by Kant, the question of resistance is analyzed from the perspective of Positive Law and Morality. Furthermore, it is to be mentioned the relationship between Kant’s work and the troubled historical context of the late 18th Century. Thus, the investigation aims to come to an understanding of how external elements, namely the French Revolution and its ideals, may have had some influence on the 1790s’ Kant’s essays. In the final chapter, Kant’s argument is reconstructed from the point of view of the project of a Universal History. In line with a debate already recognized by Kantian scholarship, it is investigated whether the Philosophy of History can offer a positive meaning to revolutions despite the impasses that pervade such a controversial theme.