Kant's model for building the true church: Transcending "might makes right" and "should makes good" through the idea of a non-coercive theocracy

Stephen Palmquist

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)
    8 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Kant's Religion postulates the idea of an ethical community as a necessary requirement for humanity to become good. Few interpreters acknowledge Kant's claims that realizing this idea requires building a "church" characterized by unity, integrity, freedom, and unchangeability, and that this new form of community is a non-coercive version of theocracy. Traditional (e.g., Jewish) theocracy replaces the political state of nature ("might makes right") with an ethical state of nature ("should makes good"); non-coercive theocracy transcends this distinction, uniting humanity in a common vision of a divine legislator whose legislation is inward: the law of love binds church members together like families.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)76-94
    Number of pages19
    JournalDiametros
    Volume54
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Dec 2017

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Philosophy

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Church
    • Ethical community
    • Immanuel Kant
    • Might makes right
    • Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason
    • Theocracy

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