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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that If coercion were constitutive of legitimacy rather than merely its enforcement mechanism, Kant's account would collapse into legal positivism, which he explicitly rejects.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Kant's 'right to coerce' doctrine suggests coercion plays a constitutive role in actualizing legitimate political order, not merely enforcing it.
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    • 2.The distinction between coercion as constitutive versus enforcement-only may be less determinate than the claim assumes philosophically.
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    • 3.Both Kant and positivists separate law's validity from its moral justice; their disagreement may not hinge on coercion's constitutive status.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Kant grounds legitimacy in rational consent and moral law, not in enforcement power's mere existence or effectiveness.
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    • 2.Legal positivism identifies law's validity with social enforcement facts; Kant explicitly ties it to transcendental principles of right.
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    • 3.If coercion constituted legitimacy, unjust laws backed by superior force would be legitimate—contradicting Kant's categorical imperative.
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