Kant and the British Idealists

The significance of Kant's philosophy for the work of the British Idealists cannot be overestimated. Nevertheless, Kant is not the only German idealist who exerted an important influence on British Idealism and, moreover, each representative of this philosophical movement drew on Kant in a distinct way by providing their own interpretation, by focusing on specific aspects of the Kantian corpus and by reacting critically to particular elements of the Critical system. The aim of this paper is to focus particularly on those British Idealists who engaged with Kant's moral and political philosophy and who attempted to formulate within the framework of the Kantian philosophy answers to some of the global challenges which faced them then, but which are also particularly relevaant today. Such an examination will not only suggest new ways in which we can approach such global challenges, but will also constitute some preliminary evidence for a possible general British Idealist perspective on Kant's political thought.