Kant, Migration, and the Cosmopolitan Right Not to Be Treated with Hostility
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Corinna Mieth
Corinna Mieth is Full Professor for Practical Philosophy at Ruhr-University Bochum since 2010. She got her PhD from the University of Tuebingen (2002) with a book on “Utopian Thinking in Literature and Philosophy” and her Habilitation from the University of Bonn (2009) with a book on “Positive Duties”. She’s published on Kant’s Practical Philosophy, the Political Philosophy of John Rawls, Positive and Negative Duties, Human Dignity, Moralism, Global (In)justice and Challenges of Migration. She had Fellowships at the Research Institute for Philosophy, Hanover (2006–2007), the Ethics Center at the University of Zurich (2008), the Institute for Advanced Studies at Berlin (2020–2021) and the Fondation de la Science de L’Homme at Paris (2022). She was a visiting professor at Trinity College Dublin (2019) and the University of Rijeka (2022). Currently she’s leading a joint Germany/UK research project withMartin Sticker (Bristol) about “Using People Well and Treating People Badly: Towards a Kantian Realm of Ends and Means”.
Abstract
In the Third Definitive Article For Perpetual Peace, Kant states that “hospitality (hospitableness) means the right of a foreigner not to be treated with hostility because he has arrived on the land of another” (TPP 8:357f.). I show that the right not to be treated with hostility has two dimensions, a legal and an ethical one. The legal dimension refers to hostile actions, the ethical one to hostile attitudes. In an ethical sense, Kant dismisses hostility as a vice that is rooted in “comparing self-love,” which leads to “secret or open hostility to all whom we consider alien to us” (Rel, 6:27), whereas he uses hostility as a technical term when it comes to hostilities between states. In the context of warfare, hostility can be legitimate against an aggressor. The aim of my paper is twofold: firstly, I will provide an account of what it means to treat someone with hostility and what kind of wrong this constitutes. I will focus on the individual level of wrongdoing by drawing on Kant’s formula of humanity. This formula has usually been interpreted as prohibiting the instrumentalization of others or treating them as mere means. However, this prohibition has a significant blind spot as it does not extend to other forms of wrongdoing, such as treating others with indifference or (unjustified) hostility. Here, taking a look at the Doctrine of Virtue is also helpful. Secondly, I will discuss what a right not to be treated with hostility in the context of migration to Western countries today could amount to.
Abstract
In the Third Definitive Article For Perpetual Peace, Kant states that “hospitality (hospitableness) means the right of a foreigner not to be treated with hostility because he has arrived on the land of another” (TPP 8:357f.). I show that the right not to be treated with hostility has two dimensions, a legal and an ethical one. The legal dimension refers to hostile actions, the ethical one to hostile attitudes. In an ethical sense, Kant dismisses hostility as a vice that is rooted in “comparing self-love,” which leads to “secret or open hostility to all whom we consider alien to us” (Rel, 6:27), whereas he uses hostility as a technical term when it comes to hostilities between states. In the context of warfare, hostility can be legitimate against an aggressor. The aim of my paper is twofold: firstly, I will provide an account of what it means to treat someone with hostility and what kind of wrong this constitutes. I will focus on the individual level of wrongdoing by drawing on Kant’s formula of humanity. This formula has usually been interpreted as prohibiting the instrumentalization of others or treating them as mere means. However, this prohibition has a significant blind spot as it does not extend to other forms of wrongdoing, such as treating others with indifference or (unjustified) hostility. Here, taking a look at the Doctrine of Virtue is also helpful. Secondly, I will discuss what a right not to be treated with hostility in the context of migration to Western countries today could amount to.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Acknowledgment
- Introduction 1
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Part I Normative Accounts of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Order
- Borders, Cosmopolitan Sovereignty, and Global Mobility. A Kantian Account of Political Interdependence 7
- Cosmopolitanism and Political Realism: Kant’s Double Legacy and Contemporary Political Challenge 27
- Is Humanity (Morally) Progressing? Kant’s Philosophy of History under a Cosmopolitan Perspective 43
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Part II Kant’s Cosmopolitanism: Between Past and Future
- The Rights of Foreigners. Grotius, Pufendorf, and Kant 71
- Kant’s Cosmopolitan Philosophy in the Face of the Challenges of Migration 89
- No One Is Illegal (Only) in the Kingdom of Ends: Migration and the Double Legacy of Kant’s Political Philosophy 113
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Part III Contemporary Migration Under the Lens of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Right
- The Right to Dwell (Anywhere) on Earth and the Promise of Human Community 137
- Kant, Migration, and the Cosmopolitan Right Not to Be Treated with Hostility 159
- Kant and Migration: State and Demos Borders 181
- Notes on Contributors 203
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- Acknowledgment
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Normative Accounts of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Order
- Borders, Cosmopolitan Sovereignty, and Global Mobility. A Kantian Account of Political Interdependence 7
- Cosmopolitanism and Political Realism: Kant’s Double Legacy and Contemporary Political Challenge 27
- Is Humanity (Morally) Progressing? Kant’s Philosophy of History under a Cosmopolitan Perspective 43
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Part II Kant’s Cosmopolitanism: Between Past and Future
- The Rights of Foreigners. Grotius, Pufendorf, and Kant 71
- Kant’s Cosmopolitan Philosophy in the Face of the Challenges of Migration 89
- No One Is Illegal (Only) in the Kingdom of Ends: Migration and the Double Legacy of Kant’s Political Philosophy 113
-
Part III Contemporary Migration Under the Lens of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Right
- The Right to Dwell (Anywhere) on Earth and the Promise of Human Community 137
- Kant, Migration, and the Cosmopolitan Right Not to Be Treated with Hostility 159
- Kant and Migration: State and Demos Borders 181
- Notes on Contributors 203
- Author Index
- Subject Index
