TheDigital Kant Center NRW
is hosting its next Digital Kant Lecture. Tim Henning (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz) will speak on the following topic:The Problem of Self-Defense and the Geometric Construction of Rights in Kant.

The lecture will take place online (via Webex). The lecture will be held in German.

Webex link:

 https://uni-siegen.webex.com/uni-siegen/j.php?MTID=m4dfaf47df92cfc5d35acc9803914a88a

Abstract: 

When is it morally permissible to kill a person in order to save one’s own life? Some cases are considered uncontroversial in the debate. Others lead to debates between a more extensive view (as held by Robert Nozick and Judith Thomson) and a more restrictive view (Jeff McMahan, Michael Otsuka). The core of the problem is that facts about the spatial position of persons sometimes seem to justify a difference in their respective rights.

The lecture offers an interpretation of Kant’s theory—more precisely, the theory of rights that Kant develops in his legal philosophy. It will be shown that this theory (according to this interpretation) can justify a rather extensive view and, in particular, explain why spatial differences can result in a difference in moral rights. Kant’s central insight here is that the scope of our rights arises from a “concrete construction,” much like in geometry.