Might and Right

Abstract

The chapter sets out to critically discuss the methodological approach that Ripstein chooses when reconstructing Kant’s position and in particular how he defines and relates “constitutive” and “regulative” principles with respect to peace and public right. Forst focuses on what he calls a paradox of peace: peace is supposed to avoid, end, or overcome war as the practice of might making right; but the principle of peace itself at crucial points seems to require us to accept that might makes right, at least as far as the past is concerned. Specifically, Forst offers a different interpretation of the relevant constitutive principle in the realm of the practical, namely that of freedom, and he invites Ripstein to move beyond Kant in questioning rather than affirming the paradox of peace.