ABSTRACT
This chapter argues for something known as the Sovereignty Principle, an idea that follows from recent work by Arthur Ripstein on Kant’s political philosophy. However, it argues for the Sovereignty Principle because accepting it is mutually advantageous, and not based on Kant’s own arguments. It contrasts this Principle with its close relation, Mill’s Harm Principle, while explaining why this approach justifies duties not to harm, but not duties to aid, and why duties to the vulnerable should be limited to duties not to harm them. It concludes, however, that we should supplement the Sovereignty Principle where doing so is mutually beneficial, based on the Principle of Cooperation argued for in Chapter 6. The resulting combined Principle is referred to as the Reciprocal Sovereignty Principle, and is used in the remainder of the book.
