The Body in Kantâs Doctrine of Right

Rafeeq Hasan

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Chapter 2 The Body in Kantâs Doctrine of Right

In: Philosophical Engagements with Modernity: The Legacy of Robert B. Pippin

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Rafeeq Hasan

Rafeeq Hasan
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 17â33

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004737204-003

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Abstract

Kantâs theory of rights says much about property, but little about the body. This is surprising. For Kant holds that the point of rights is to secure freedom from the wills of others, and surely bodily rights are more central to freedom than property. In this paper I develop Kantâs brief remarks on the body in order to explain why the body matters for a politics of freedom. I do so by addressing the worry, familiar to post-Kantian political philosophy, that rights discourse misconstrues the body in overly proprietary or âthing-likeâ terms, treating the body as what a person possesses rather than as what a person most essentially is. In response, I argue that conceptualizing the body in the possessory vocabulary of rights plays an essential role in securing social equality. Paradoxically, persons must become thing-like to themselves in order to become more fully person-like to others.

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Philosophical Engagements with Modernity: The Legacy of Robert B. Pippin

Series:Â New Research in the History of Western Philosophy, Volume: 16

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004737204

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 08 Apr 2026

Subjects
- Philosophy
  - General
  - 19th & 20th Century Philosophy

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Chapter 2 The Body in Kantâs Doctrine of Right

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Philosophical Engagements with Modernity: The Legacy of Robert B. Pippin

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Chapter 2 The Body in Kantâs Doctrine of Right