ABSTRACT
Contemporary debate over public welfare policy is often cast in Kantian terms. It is argued, for example, that respect for the dignity of the poor requires public aid, or that respect for their autonomy forbids it. The chapter considers the most plausible ways of trying to derive public welfare provision from the duty of beneficence Immanuel Kant develops as part of his moral theory, and from his doctrine of external freedom. It assesses a simple argument from beneficence to welfare. The chapter attempts to connect beneficence and welfare through Kant's conception of the 'general will'. It addresses Leslie Mulholland's argument for welfare on the basis of Kant's conception of external freedom. The chapter concludes not that public welfare cannot be justified within Kant's political theory, but that the only viable justification for it is just the one Kant offers–as instrumental to the security of the state.
