INTRODUCTION

This chapter pursues two principal aims. The first is to assess the recent reception of metaphysics, especially of ‘Kantian metaphysics’, in contemporary liberalism. The second aim is to sketch a metaphysical framework for analysing Kant's account of political obligation in the Rechtslehre. As regards the first aim, I focus on the liberal theories of John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas. Not only are these two thinkers dominant figures in current liberal thinking – but their approaches to justice and political justification are also deeply in influenced by Kant, albeit in very different ways. However, I do not offer a detailed discussion of their respective theories; my intention is merely to consider their views on the role of metaphysics in political thinking.

With regard to the second aim of this chapter, I draw on Stephan Körner's recent analysis of the structure and function of metaphysics in general. In adapting Körner's analysis to the political context I first contrast his account of metaphysics in terms of a person's categorial framework with Rawls' most recent view of it as the expression of an individual's private beliefs about the world.