The Ethical Community in Kant’s Pure Rational System of Religion: Comments on Rossi’s The Ethical Commonwealth in History

This commentary on Rossi’s The Ethical Commonwealth in History will address three points of interpretation related to Kant’s conception of the ethical community/commonwealth (ethischen gemeinen Wesen). First, I will raise a number of concerns related to Rossi’s use of Kant’s concept of the highest good. Second, I will examine the relevance of the overall project of Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason to his discussion of the ethical community, a matter that Rossi does not take up. Third, I will challenge the optimism that Rossi assigns to Perpetual Peace in light of its closing “antinomy between politics and morals.”