The demands of innate right

An examination of the implications of Kant's conception of innate right for the organisation of political life. For Kant there was only one innate right: freedom. That carried with it immediately the implication of human equality. A civil society required reciprocal constraint so that each might seek their fulfilment in their own distinct way. Kant believed the idea of innate right must be deprived a priori by reason, however the principles that flowed from the idea also reflected the significant political developments of his day. The principles can be seen to be at work in the American and French Revolutions.