Intelligible Maps in Kant’s Genealogical Justification of Territorial Rights

Genealogies are sorts of narratives that draw on fairly basic assumptions about the human condition and illustrate how institutions could have emerged from that condition. Did Kant make use of genealogies in his political philosophy? The paper shows that Kant’s justification of territorial rights is saturated with genealogical elements. The starting point is provided by the fact of human proximity. Central to the perception of human proximity are – in Kant’s view – ‘intelligible maps’. These maps are imaginary schemes that function as a priori conditions of experience. They come before experience, order reality and in so doing make knowledge and communication possible. By means of these maps human beings are not seen merely as spread on earth, but imagined as divided up in clusters of human proximity, each defined by territorial boundaries.