Charlton Payne & Lucas Thorpe 
Kant and the Concept of Community 

The concept of community plays a central role in Kant’s theoretical philosophy, his practical philosophy, his aesthetics, and his religious thought. Kant uses community in many philosophical contexts: the category of community introduced in his table of categories in the
Critique of Pure Reason; the community of substances in the third analogy; the realm of ends as an ethical community; the state and the public sphere as political communities; the
sensus communis of the
Critique of Judgment; and the idea of the church as a religious community in
Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. Given Kant’s status as a systematic philosopher, volume editors Payne and Thorpe maintain that any examination of the concept of community in one area of his work can be understood only in relation to the others. In this volume, then, scholars from different disciplines — specializing in various aspects of and approaches to Kant’s work — offer their interpretations of Kant on the concept of community. The various essays further illustrate the central relevance and importance of Kant’s conception of community to contemporary debates in various fields.


Charlton Payne is postdoctoral fellow at Plattform Weltregionen und Interaktionen, Universität Erfurt, Germany. Lucas Thorpe is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Bogaziçi University, Turkey.


Contributors: Ronald Beiner, Jeffrey Edwards, Michael Feola, Paul Guyer, Jane Kneller, Béatrice Longuenesse, Jan Mieszkowski, Onora O’Neill, Charlton Payne, Susan M. Shell, Lucas Thorpe, Eric Watkins, Allen W. Wood

Spis treści

Introduction: The Many Senses of Community in Kant – Charlton Payne and Lucas Thorpe

Kant’s Standpoint on the Whole (Disjunctive Judgment, Community, and the Third Analogy of Experience) – Béatrice Longuenesse

Making Sense of Mutual Interaction: Simultaneity and the Equality of Action and Reaction – Eric Watkins

Kant and the Ethics of Community: The Metaphysical Roots of Kant’s Mature Ethics – Lucas Thorpe

Kantian Communities: The Realm of Ends, the Ethical Community, and the Highest Good – Paul Guyer

Religion, Ethical Community and the Struggle Against Evil – Allen Wood

Kant’s Conception of Public Reason – Onara O’Neill

Original Community, Possession, and Acquisition in Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals – Jeffrey Edwards

Community and Normativity: Hegel’s Challenge to Kant – Michael Feola

Paradoxes in Kant’s Account of Citizenship – Ronald Beiner

Kant’s Conception of the Nation State and the Idea of Europe Aesthetics – Susan Meld Shell

Kant’s Parergonal Poltics: The Sensus Communis and the Problem of Political Action – Charlton Payne

Aesthetic Feflective Judgments and Social Reflective Judgments – Jane Kneller

Social Demands: Kant and the Possibility of Communicative Communities – Jan Mieszkowski