Morality, Politics and Law in Neo-Kantian Philosophy

Like many other neo-Kantians Karl Vorlaender became a supporter of the nascent democratic socialist party within Germany. He followed this through in his political philosophy with an attempt both to make camparison’s between Marx and Kant’s moral, social and political thought and by seeking to make a synthesis between the two approaches. This paper will look at how appropriate these comparisons between Marx and Kant are and how viable the synthesis Vorlaender suggested might be. The paper will also seek briefly to compare Vorlaender’s approach to the relationship between socialism and Kantianism with that of other neo-Kantians and socialist writers.