ABSTRACT
The institutions of a state, as the instruments of a political order, will often frustrate the interests of an individual. Immanuel Kant agrees with the basic tenets of what nowadays is called a public reason approach to political philosophy. He shares with this approach the view that coercive state power has to be justifiable to each individual. But he offers a distinctive version of a public reason account. This chapter spells out how Kant envisions the relation between the laws of a state and the particular judgment of an individual, and what form of consent is needed to justify coercion. It then specifies Kant's proposed understanding of the standard of reason through which public reason could be possible despite individual differences, and briefly sketches its justification. The chapter paves the way for explaining how Kant himself uses 'public reason'. Finally, it elucidates his puzzling claim that the conscience of the individual cannot err.
