Why the law matters to you : citizenship, agency, and public identity / Christoph Hanisch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hanisch, Christoph.

Series:

Practical philosophy ; Bd. 16.

Practical philosophy ; volume 16

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Citizenship.

Effectiveness and validity of law.

Law--Philosophy.

Law.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (276 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin : De Gruyter, [2013]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book presents an answer to the question of why modern legal institutions and the idea of citizenship are important for leading a free life. The majority of views in political and legal philosophy regard the law merely as a useful instrument, employed to render our lives more secure and to enable us to engage in cooperate activities more efficiently. The view developed here defends a non-instrumentalist alternative of why the law matters. It identifies the law as a constitutive feature of our identities as citizens of modern states. The constitutivist argument rests on the (Kantian) assumption that a person's practical identity (its normative self-conception as an agent) is the result of its actions. The law co-constitutes these identities because it maintains the external conditions that are necessary for the actions performed under its authority. Modern legal institutions provide these external prerequisites for achieving a high degree of individual self-constitution and freedom. Only public principles can establish our status as individuals who pursue their life plans and actions as a matter of right and not because others contingently happen to let us do so. The book thereby provides resources for a reply to anarchist challenges to the necessity of legal ordering.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Introduction

Part 1: A Challenge for Citizenship

Chapter 1: Kukathas's Challenge to Contemporary Liberalism

Chapter 2: The Liberal State and Liberal Citizens

Chapter 3: Initial Ad Hominem Reply to Kukathas

Part 2: Public Identity and Self-Constituting Action

Chapter 4: Korsgaard's Two Arguments

Chapter 5: Public Actions and Public Identities

Chapter 6: Clarification and Objections

Part 3: Self-Constituting Action and the Law

Chapter 7: Action and the Law

Chapter 8: The Nature of Law Revisited

Chapter 9: Reply to Kukathas

Conclusion

References

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-267) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9783110324563

3110324563

OCLC:

858761577