The anti-totalitarian message of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of law

Abstract

Immanuel Kant is one of the main representatives of the Enlightenment and liberalism. From the current perspective, the message of his philosophy of law should be treated as anti-totalitarian, mainly due to the idea of freedom, which in Kant’s view was referred to and postulated by practical reason.

Similar anti-totalitarian sentiments can be found in Kant’s imperatives: categorical, practical, and legal imperative, the concept of perpetual peace, republican system and state of purposes. All this can be referred to the principles of democratic state, the rule of law, civil society, and the protection of civil rights and political freedoms.