Kant's "Toward Lasting Peace"
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A Philosophical Outline
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Immanuel Kant begins this short essay by contrasting the realism of practical politicians with the high-minded theories of philosophers. But his opening line provides a grim reminder that the only alternative to finding a way to avoid the war of each against all is the lasting peace of the graveyard. The advent of total war and the development of nuclear weapons in the twentieth century give Kant’s reflections an urgency he could not have anticipated.
Kant’s Toward Lasting Peace is best known as an early articulation of the idea of a league of nations that could bring “an end to all hostilities,” but what is most important about Kant’s essay is its ability to probe the fundamental principles that shape relations among nations with specific attention to the dynamics of war and peace. For Kant, politics must be grounded in ethics. Neither ethics nor politics can be based on revelation, because there is simply no common authority to which all human beings can appeal to resolve ethical and political questions. Reason is the only court of appeal for all human beings.
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Lasting Peace and Kant, April 23, 2009
Reviewer: rania samir
Lasting Peace and Kant
- Published:
2002
- LearnOutLoud.com Product ID:
K019653
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Politics
Political Philosophy
Philosophy
Modern Philosophy
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