Kant and Property Rights

Kant’s account of property rights is embedded within his general ethical system, centered on the Categorical Imperative described in the Groundwork and the second Critique. Also, we must look to the account of teleology put forth in the Critique of Judgment and in his shorter political essays if we are to understand the ultimate ground of Kant’s thinking on property rights. Nonetheless, the Metaphysics of Morals provides the central details of Kant’s account of property rights, and I will turn to sustained examination of this work to make clear the nature of telos that is connected with the move away from the state of nature and toward legitimization of property claims.

Volume 18, Number 3 (2004)