Discussion on the Problem of Coercion: Gottlieb Hufeland and Immanuel Kant

The problem of coercion, raised as part of the theory of natural right in Germany in the late eighteenth century, is discussed with particular reference to the polemic between Gottlieb Hufeland and Immanuel Kant. In his Essay on the Principle of Natural Right (1785) and the first edition of the Principles of Natural Right and Related Sciences (1790) Hufeland derives right from the moral imperative, the duty to contribute to the perfection (Vollkommenheit) of all intelligent creatures. This is premised on the legitimacy of coercion as a means to achieve that goal. This approach is developed against the background of the tradition represented by Gottfried Achenwall and Ernst Ferdinand Klein with whose works Hufeland was familiar and whose positions he either criticised and called into question or used to bolster his own arguments. Achenwall’s teaching has a theological basis while Klein’s position gravitates toward Kantianism. Kant himself, though he does not openly criticise Hufeland’s natural law system which, in spite of its author’s professed adherence to Kantianism, contradicts the key Kantian ideas, takes a very different view of the problem of coercion. In the second edition of his textbook, The Principles of Natural Right (1795), Hufeland revises his concept to make noticeable changes to his grounding of natural law and the function of coercion, which attests to Kant’s influence on his position. The discussion between Hufeland and Kant, in turn, contributed to the shaping of Kant’s theory of right in the Metaphysics of Morals (1797).