The Voice of World Citizens:

On the Basis of Freedom of Speech in Kant' s Doctrine of Right

Abstract

The significance of Kant's conception of freedom of speech in the history of political thought can hardly be overestimated. Given the intensive contemporary debates concerning the potentiality of this conception, it is more important than ever to properly conceive its original scope as well as its dynamism in relation to his political thought as a whole. This paper attempts to return freedom of speech as an inalienable human right to its birthplace in his systematic doctrine of right. By resituating this right in its proper place, we are able to see that freedom of speech is essential to our experience of political freedom for Kant, not merely in the negative sense but in the positive sense: It is the expressive gesture of the general will in ourselves.