Kant's Theory of Economics

The volume published by Achim Brosch is very welcome in the field of international Kantian studies, as it covers an overt gap in this line of research.It claims that Kant delivers a valuable theory of economic relations, which identifies the main economic orders, agents and dynamics in German and European economy in 18 th century, and further showcases the impact that these issues have in the moral and anthropological writings of this author, even if it has been usually neglected by Kant's interpreters.Although the author rebukes the tendency of the scholarship to despise the existence of a complex reflection in Kant on the crossing of empirical and normative traits in the making of economic life, he also acknowledges that some scholars (Pascoe 2015 and 2022, Allais 2014, Snchez Madrid 2024, and Vrousalis 2022) have attempted, in recent years, to highlight the role that economy fulfils in Kant's moral and anthropological writings.It is worth noting from the outset that Brosch sketches Kant's account of economic orders and processes as an entangled field, as it develops in an empirical level ensuing the action of individual agents and interests, but also has to be controlled and ruled according to normative principles ensuing from the rational doctrine of right.I consider that the most outstanding merit of the book bears on its focus on the strains outspread between the empirical (and anthropological) and normative (both legal and moral) features of economic development in Kant's view, which makes of the publication a decidedly recommended reading for interpreters interested in this dimension of Kant's philosophy and its aftermath in the contemporary world.After providing an introductory historical account that spotlights some milestones of the philosophical approach to economy relations and processes from Aristotle to Adam Smith, Brosch furnishes an accurate essay that sheds light on the central entities ruling economic life in Kant's time.It should be noted that the author prioritizes the depiction of historical contexts over the discussion of intersectional systematic injustices underpinning the bonds and actions stemming from feudal and protoliberal patterns spread in the 18 th century Prussia.In this vein, the author also emphasizes that he adopts a "text immanent" methodology, which aims to work out a complete overview of Kant's theory of economy on the whole, mostly addressing a conceptual reconstruction of the ideological basis sustaining Kant's anthropological and moral accounts and analyses.Yet, in my view, the valuable research put together in this volume will encourage critical scholars of Kant's approach to the economic order to engage in fruitful dialogue with this essay.Thereby issues such as extreme poverty, economic dependence, and the role that racialized people and women fulfilled as workforce in Kant's time could kick off a stimulating conversation, conscious of the historical data delivered by Brosch, but also keen on the political enquiry that might arise with both a historical and critical scope.As previously mentioned, the essay breaks down the key economic units that Kant tackles in his writings outlining the house, the market and the state, which are intended to conflate coordination and subordination, as the first ones are destined to lay down two complementary and concentric spheres and only the state raises the highest public authority able to control the pathologies that some loose sectors of the market and also the increasing "mania of possession" [Habsucht] among some subjects might bring about, menacing the organic development of the commonwealth.Brosch rightly hints to the value of "independence" [Selbststndigkeit] as the main requirement to be met by the owner and lord of a household -embodied in the legal standing of sui iuris-, which remains intertwined with the corresponding duties and burdens stemming from the participation in the spaces of the market and the state.Yet this quite objective interpretation of Kant's account of the economic orders does not focus, as a principal goal, on the factual exclusion that such pattern entails for relevant sets of people, although the author mentions it in some pages and conveys awareness of the scope that this issue might have in a more critical reading of this aspect of Kant's philosophy.In fact, not only women, considered too immature to attain