In Kant’s idea of a “noumenal republic”, every person is subject to the general law, which they also co-author as legislators. This philosophical idea is reflected today in the principle that all people are born with equal dignity and equal rights. However, this principle appears just as irrefutable in normative terms as it is refuted empirically on a daily basis. A critical analysis of society and politics must show the extent to which the reality of power and ideology reduces this constructivist view of dignity to absurdity. A Kantian critical theory is needed to bridge the gap between unworldly idealism and the diagnosis of practical hopelessness.
Prof. Dr. Rainer Forst (Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy and Director of the “Normative Orders” Research Centre at Goethe University Frankfurt) outlines such a theory in his book “The Noumenal Republic”. The book was recently published in English translation by Polity Verlag and is now also available in open access.
To the book in Open Access: Here…
