Kevin Laule

Having completed a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy and Political Science (Konstanz, 2013), I pursued a Master's degree in Philosophy (Konstanz, 2019). Simultaneously, I completed a teaching degree in Philosophy/Ethics and Political/Economic Sciences (First State Examination, Konstanz 2019). Since passing my Second State Examination (2021), I work as a teacher of Philosophy, Ethics, Politics, and Economics at Friedrich-Wöhler-Gymnasium in Singen (Hohentwiel), and since March 2023, I am also a PhD Student at the Chair of Practical Philosophy at the University of Konstanz.

My research interests primarily concern political philosophy, moral philosophy, and the didactics of philosophy and ethics education. My dissertation project is in political philosophy and is supervised by Jacob Rosenthal, Susanne Burri (both from the University of Konstanz), and Ralf M. Bader (University of Fribourg, CH). I deal with the challenge of anarchism, which many consider to be the fundamental problem of political philosophy. This challenge has two sides. First, philosophical anarchists deny that states, including democratic states, have a moral right to rule or, in other words, legitimate political authority. Neither do states have a moral right to impose duties on people through laws and enforce them, nor do citizens have a content-independent duty to obey state orders simply because they come from the state. Second, political anarchists also dispute the necessity of the state. They argue that a stateless world is not only possible but desirable and therefore call for the abolition of all states.

In my project I investigate whether and, if so, to what extent the challenge of anarchism can be answered. I also examine the relationship between the two sides of the challenge, particularly the question of whether it is a plausible position to declare states illegitimate but at the same time justified or even necessary.