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Full Idea
The hiring of men to kill or be killed seems to mean using them as mere machines and insturments in the hands of someone else (the state), which cannot easily be reconciled with the rights of man in one's own person.
Gist of Idea
Hiring soldiers is to use them as instruments, ignoring their personal rights
Source
Immanuel Kant (Perpetual Peace [1795], 1.3)
Book Ref
Kant,Immanuel: 'Political Writings', ed/tr. Reiss,Hans [CUP 1996], p.9
A Reaction
Kant was not a pacificist, though this makes him sound like one. Some men go off to war with enthusiasm, and then regret it. Exploitation of rational beings may be the worst sin in Kant's Enlightenment world.
| 20569 | Kant made the social contract international and cosmopolitan [Kant, by Oksala] |
| 21073 | Hiring soldiers is to use them as instruments, ignoring their personal rights [Kant] |
| 21074 | Some trust in the enemy is needed during wartime, or peace would be impossible [Kant] |
| 21075 | The state of nature always involves the threat of war [Kant] |
| 21076 | Equality is where you cannot impose a legal obligation you yourself wouldn't endure [Kant] |
| 21077 | Each nation should, from self-interest, join an international security constitution [Kant] |
| 21078 | A constitution must always be improved when necessary [Kant] |
| 21079 | The a priori general will of a people shows what is right [Kant] |
| 20570 | There is now a growing universal community, and violations of rights are felt everywhere [Kant] |
| 20571 | There are political and inter-national rights, but also universal cosmopolitan rights [Kant] |