more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
The state of nature need not be a state of injustice merely because those who live in it treat one another in terms of power. But it is devoid of justice, for if a dispute over right occurs in it, there is no competent judge to give valid decisions.
Gist of Idea
A power-based state of nature may not be unjust, but there is no justice without competent judges
Source
Immanuel Kant (Metaphysics of Morals I: Doctrine of Right [1797], §44)
Book Ref
Kant,Immanuel: 'Political Writings', ed/tr. Reiss,Hans [CUP 1996], p.137
A Reaction
Could you not achieve justice by means of personal violence? Might not a revered older person have been accepted as a judge?
| 21407 | Equality is not being bound in ways you cannot bind others [Kant] |
| 21080 | Actions are right if the maxim respects universal mutual freedoms [Kant] |
| 21081 | We are equipped with the a priori intuitions needed for the concept of right [Kant] |
| 21406 | Because there is only one human reason, there can only be one true philosophy from principles [Kant] |
| 21082 | A power-based state of nature may not be unjust, but there is no justice without competent judges [Kant] |
| 21083 | Women have no role in politics [Kant] |
| 21084 | In the contract people lose their rights, but immediately regain them, in the new commonwealth [Kant] |
| 21085 | The church has a political role, by offering a supreme power over people [Kant] |
| 21086 | Hereditary nobility has not been earned, and probably won't be earned [Kant] |
| 21087 | Human life is pointless without justice [Kant] |
| 21088 | Justice asserts the death penalty for murder, from a priori laws [Kant] |
| 21089 | Monarchs have the highest power; autocrats have complete power [Kant] |
| 21090 | If someone has largely made something, then they own it [Kant] |