Try Kant’s view on revolutions. I have not looked at any of these (I did this very quickly), but they might start you on a path. Also, instead of revolution, try the term rebellion in your searches.
Sidney Axinn, “Kant, Authority, and the French Revolution”
L.W. Beck, “Kant and the Right of Rebellion”
Peter Nicholson, “Kant on the Duty Never to Resist the Sovereign”
Hans Reiss, “Kant and the Right of Rebellion”
Thomas Seebohm, “Kant’s Theory of Revolution”
Also, if you can get to a copy of “Kant’s Political Writings” with an introduction by Han Reiss, Cambridge Press 1970, the introduction is excellent in describing Kant’s view.
Here’s an excerpt of Reiss’s intro -
According to Kant, the case against rebellion is unambiguous. The people cannot possess a right to rebel. There can be no power to determine what constitutes the right to rebel. Rebellion would upset the whole system of laws. It would create anarchy and violence. It would also destroy the civil constitution which the idea of the social contract demands. For if a constitution contained an article permitting a people to rebel or to depose a sovereign, a second sovereign would thereby be established. This event would be a contradiction. It would, in fact, require a further, third sovereign to decide between the two, which is absurd. There cannot therefore be in a constitution a clause giving any one a right to resist or to rebel against supreme authority.
And finally, best wishes on your essay.
Kant. Now that’s interesting. I studied him briefly in my “Western Philosophy” class, but we never went into his political theories. I will definitely check that out. :) Thank you.
The following would make a nice page or two for your paper.
Show the progression from natural law (ex. Henry VIII, God’s prince with absolute power, or at least that’s how he saw it), to positive law (John Austen, the Mills, father and son: utilitarianism, or the attempt to accomplish “the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people,” described by some as `a philosophy fit for swine’), to whatever we have today, Kant’s categorical imperatives, or devolution to Obama’s L’ÉTAT, C’EST MOI ?
I’d be careful with the last thang since it’s quite possible your professor is a lefty butt-hole.