ABSTRACT
This chapter explores two senses of sovereignty at work in Kant’s political philosophy, the sovereignty of the people within a state in his idea of republican government and the sovereignty of nations in his ideal of perpetual peace. A common theme is the necessity of free speech in both cases, in the first case in the form of the right of the people to petition for redress of their government (and the corresponding duty of the government to respond) and in the second case the necessity of a right of diplomatic representation for both international and cosmopolitan right. Along the way, the chapter argues for the methodological point that, as part of his metaphysics of morals, Kant’s political philosophy rests on incontrovertible but empirical assumptions as well as a priori principles.
