Abstract
Kant’s social and political theory is now recognised to be a significant component of his philosophy, with continuing relevance, particularly to contemporary cosmopolitanism and analytic theories of politics and global theory.1 Kant’s political philosophy is framed within a conception of humanity’s freedom and its moral responsibility for the value and dignity of all human beings. He proposes a cosmopolitanism which widens the orbit of moral and political concern from a prevailing concentration on members of one’s community to include all rational creatures. His cosmopolitanism is founded upon an Enlightenment notion of the universality of reason, the physical limits of the globe, and the possibility of achieving a practical realisation of a cosmopolitan respect for mankind via the publicity afforded to enlightened ideas. It might be said to represent the progressive fusion of the universality of reason with the physical, spatial limits of the globe.
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Notes
The introductory essay, ‘Kant’s cosmopolitan ideal in “Toward perpetual peace”: Historical reconstructions’ by J. Bohman and M. Lutz-Bachman in their edited volume Perpetual Peace: Essays on Kant’s Cosmopolitan Ideal sets out the significance and contemporary relevance of Kant’s political theory. See J. Bohman and M. Lutz-Bachman (eds), Perpetual Peace: Essays on Kant’s Cosmopolitan Ideal (Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1997).
The extent to which a turn towards Kant is at the same time a turn away from Hegel and Marx and historicised or postmodern accounts of social and political life is evident in Cavallar’s Kant and the Theory and Practice of International Right, where he portrays Kant as a historical and practical theorist but still separates him sharply from postmodernism and Hegel and Marx by dint of his commitment to reason. See G. Cavallar, Kant and the Theory and Practice of International Right (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1999).
See I. Kant, Critique of Judgement trans. J. C. Meredith (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1969).
See I. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason trans. P. Guyer and A. Wood (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997).
See M. Albrow, The Global Age (Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, 1996).
I. Kant, ‘Perpetual peace: A philosophical sketch’ in Kant’s Political Writings ed. H. Reiss, trans. H.B. Nisbet (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 105–106.
For discussion of the relationship between Kant’s theory of morals and his anthropology see T. Brooks, Hegel’s Political Philosophy — A Systematic Reading of the Philosophy of Right (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2007), ch. 4;
K. Westphal, ‘Hegel’s critique of Kant’s moral world view’ Philosophical Topics, 19, 1991, pp. 133–176;
K. Westphal, ‘Kant, Hegel and determining our duties’, Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik/Annual review of Law and Ethics, 13, 2005 pp. 335–354.
See T. Brooks, Hegel’s Political Philosophy — A Systematic Reading of the Philosophy of Right (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2007), ch. 4;
K. Westphal, ‘Hegel’s critique of Kant’s moral world view’ Philosophical Topics, 19, 1991, pp. 133–176; K. Westphal, ‘Kant, Hegel and determining our duties’ Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik/Annual review of Law and Ethics, 13.
W. Kersting, ‘Politics, freedom and order: Kant’s political philosophy’ in P. Guyer (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Kant (Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 347.
I. Kant, Critique of Practical Reason trans. and ed. L. Beck (Oxford, Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993), p. 61.
J. Rawls, The Law of Peoples (Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1999).
See S. Caney, Justice Beyond Borders: A Global Political Theory) Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005).
R. Steger, Globalisation — A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 6.
J-F. Lyotard, Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime trans. E. Rottenberg (Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, 1994).
D. Burnham, An Introduction to Kant’s Critique of Judgement (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2000), pp. 122–142.
J. Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (Cambridge, Polity Press, 1993), p. 43.
S. Anderson-Gold, Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights (Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 2001), p. 8.
Ibid., pp. 80–81. See also J. Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (Ithaca NY, Cornell University Press, 1989).
Hutchings traces the influences of Kant’s thought on Habermas, Foucault, Arendt and Lyotard as well as exploring its impact on contemporary international relations theory and feminism. Her message is that Kant cannot be pigeon-holed easily, for his thought aims to recognise and resolve its own limits. K. Hutchings, Kant, Critique and Politics (London and New York, Routledge, 1996).
J-F. Lyotard, The Differend — Phrases in Dispute trans. G. Van Den Abeele (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1989).
H. Arendt, Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy (Brighton, Harvester Press, 1982).
In his later work on ethics and politics, Derrida invokes Kant’s notion of a regulative idea to guide conduct, to imagine a way of aligning conduct with what is assumed to be right and proper without a fixed rule or idea to guide it. There is no exhaustion of possible ways of acting and yet we must act and the Kantian assumption of a regulative idea is tempting for Derrida. See his discussion in the interview, ‘Autoimmunity: Real and symbolic suicides — a dialogue with Jacques Derrida’ in G. Borradori (ed.) Philosophy in a Time of Terror — Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida (Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 2003), pp. 134–135.
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© 2011 Gary Browning
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Browning, G. (2011). Kant: Cosmopolitan Reason, Progress and Global Responsibility. In: Global Theory from Kant to Hardt and Negri. International Political Theory Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230308541_2
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