Kant's Politics in Context

This book situates Kant's political writings in relation to the sociopolitical context of his day. As such, it is an important contribution to the literature on Kant's political philosophy . . . This is an excellent book and should be read by anyone with an interest in Kant or enlightenment political philosophy. * Ethics *
Reidar Maliks' Kant's Politics in Context is a much needed addition to the literature on Kant's legal and political philosophy . . . Maliks throws considerable light onto the development of Kant's legal and political thought and provides an invaluable picture of the German public sphere during that time . . . It is a significant contribution to recent Kant scholarship and, last but not least, a fascinating read. * The Philosophical Quarterly *
an excellent, well-written, precise, and enjoyable book. * History of Political Thought *
Maliks' groundbreaking study shows that Kant's solutions appear much less mysterious once the development in Kant's thought is connected to the contemporaneous debates on the political implications of his philosophy. * European Journal of Politcal Theory *
it is beyond doubt that Maliks' argument succeeds in revealing the significance of Kant's distinctive philosophy of politics and law in the face of alternative political-legal visions found in that period of European intellectual history. * Contemporary Political Theory *
this is scholarship at a very high level. Scrupulously well argued and rigorously structured, Malik's book offers some fascinating insights into Kant's political philosophy and his times. * Los Angeles Review of Books *
Kant's Politics in Context is a remarkable piece of scholarship. Unusually, it will make for stimulating reading for Kant scholars--who have much to gain from Maliks' contextualist approach--as well as serving as a clear introduction to Kants political theory . . . we can be thankful to Reidar Maliks for restoring to full view the teleology of a human being urgently and consummately engaged with the political issues of his day. * History of European Ideas *
I strongly recommend Kants Politics in Context. I learned much from it, and so should anyone interested in Kant's intellectual context, the development of Kant's political philosophy, the early appropriations of Kants ethics for political purposes or the reception of Theory and Practice. * Kantian Review *
Maliks not only succeeds in bringing these contexts to life, but he also contributes to a more profound systematic understanding of Kant's political philosophy . . . In sum, this is an excellent book and a very good read. It would be desirable if more followed the methodology of contextualism as it is applied in this book. * British Journal for the History of Philosophy *
this is a very fine book. It greatly enriches our understanding of the development of Kant's political thinking in the 1790s, and provides an excellent (and in anglophone scholarship long overdue)introduction into the broader political debates in the German public sphere in the post-revolutionary period. * Intellectual History Review *
What is so striking when reading about Kant's politics in Maliks' book about him is how modern he was, and how this most German of thinkers departed from the stereotype of the teutonic Meisterdenker, and instead came close to the ideal of the British constitutionalist. * Philosophy Now *
The translation of Kant's ideas into more recognisable and accessible terminology from the perspective of a modern reader is an incredibly useful reading tool, particularly for readers who may be less familiar with, or completely new to, Kant's writing. * Josh Jowitt, LSE Blog *
Kant thought of philosophy, including political philosophy, as an a priori discipline. As such, his work might be expected to be resistant or even hostile to any sort of contextualization. In this excellent book, Reidar Maliks explores Kant's relation to the events of his era and the political debates of his contemporaries, but does so without dismissing or compromising his philosophical ambitions. It will be essential reading for both Kant scholars and anyone interested in the history of political thought. * Arthur Ripstein, University of Toronto *
By meticulously reconstructing the lively debates between Kant and his many interlocutors, including both his radical and conservative followers, Reidar Maliks illuminates the revolutionary circumstances that shaped Kant's political thought. Maliks' incisive philosophical analysis of Kant on freedom, equality, citizenship, resistance, and peace elucidates German Enlightenment republican thought on its own terms and yet, precisely in doing so, demonstrates its resonances with contemporary political dilemmas. * Sankar Muthu, University of Chicago *
That Immanuel Kant idealized the public sphere in a time in which the public sphere was still more an ideal than an actually reality is well known. Less well known is that he intentionally developed his own philosophy in public discourse. This is one of the insights of Reidar Maliks' book, a welcome contribution in the knowledge of a philosopher whose ideas shaped so deeply the way the moderns came to conceive of politics as a discursive practice in the open that relies on information and citizens' judgment. Maliks' is a must-read book. * Nadia Urbinati, Columbia University *
In the past decades, political philosophy has recovered the systematic appeal of Kant's legal and political thought, but often at the cost of separating it from its origins in the late Enlightenment debates on liberty and paternalism, on republicanism and autocracy, on peace, revolution, and war. Reidar Maliks identifies Kant's important precursors in theories of sovereignty and natural law, but also introduces his lesser known interlocutors, conservative or radical, in Europe's revolutionary debates. Maliks offers the first comprehensive English-language contextual reading of Kant's political thought, embedding Kant into the discussions of his age, yet never losing sight of the conceptual standards of todays philosophical debate. * Peter Niesen, University of Hamburg *
The book nicely illuminates Kants political philosophy in its socio-historical context . . .The book is well-written and the arguments are well-established. I highly recommend the book for anyone who is interested in Kants moral and political philosophy. * Aref Ebadi, University of Nottingham *
In Kant's Politics in Context, Reidar Maliks convincingly sketches how Kant's theorizing responded not only to the French Revolution's often harrowing consequences but also to friends and foes who sought to use Kants' philosophy to make sense of those events . . . Both goals are admirably met, and the result is a lively image of Kant among his contemporaries during an extremely rich period of political philosophizing. * International Philosophical Quarterly *