Related Papers
Kant’s dynamic republican cosmopolitanism: beyond the democratic peace proposition
Georg Cavallar
The starting point of this chapter is a criticism of Doyle and his interpretation of Kant’s political philosophy. In the first section, I argue that Kant’s claim in the first definitive article is different from Doyle's reading as well as methodologically complex. I distinguish between Kant's pragmatic argument (his democratic peace proposition) and his a priori or transcendental claim. Both are distinct from Doyle's interpretation, which emphasizes above all institutional restraint and shared cultural norms. The second section presents an alternative and I hope more convincing interpretation of the first definitive article. My main argument against Doyle is that he takes Kant’s transcendental claims as statements that can be verified empirically. I propose that we drop Doyle's juxtaposition of liberal and illiberal as a fallacy of essentialism. Kant's distinction between republican and despotic regimes is a methodological abstraction belonging to ideal theory (the system of rights). Kant favours an inclusive global federation as a first step, offering legal as well as pragmatic considerations. Kant's political philosophy is dynamic. States and their constitutions can be located along a continuum stretching from entities that have not left or have returned to the state of nature to the a priori ideal of a republic. In his tentative and reflective philosophy of history, Kant reconstructs history as a dynamic process where political communities move, or ought to move, from deficient forms of statehood towards the ideal. Kant cannot simply be labelled a ‘liberal’, but should be situated between the natural right tradition, continental republicanism and early modern contractarian liberalism, integrating elements of all these traditions into his political theory. Accepting that a republic does not only depend on just political institutions but also on the moral character of its citizens, and asserting that humans have to fulfil their vocation, Kant hoped that the republican constitution would gradually foster a cosmopolitan mode of thought (Denkungsart) and a cosmopolitan disposition (Gesinnung). In this dynamic political process with moral ramifications but no direct link to world peace, the public sphere and publicity are central. Liberal interpreters like Doyle tend to overlook the importance of formation (Bildung) in Kant’s political philosophy, and its emphasis on the enlarged way of thinking that has to be cultivated (this is a revised version of my 2001 Piece)
How cosmopolitanism reduces conflict: A broad reading of Kant's third ingredient for peace
luigi caranti
Kant's theory of peace has been reinterpreted under one of the most influential research programs of our times: The so-called democratic peace theory. In particular, the third ingredient of Kant's " recipe " for peace —the cosmopolitan right to visit—has been recognized as a powerful and effective instrument to reduce militarized interstate conflicts. In the hands of political scientists, however, this ingredient has often become nothing more than a set of rules for securing and facilitating international trade and economic interdependence. This article argues that this narrow reading mistakes international trade as the essence of the third definitive article. Kant sees economic interdependence as a means to realize what cosmopolitan right is truly about, that is, the affirmation of a set of rules for protecting humans qua humans, the creation of communal bonds among individuals beyond national or group loyalties, and the promotion of a global moral conscience modeled on the natural rights of man. An accurate understanding of cosmopolitan right is essential to avoid the popular-yet mistaken-idea that Kant sees progress towards peace as possible without individuals' and peoples' moral progress. In the last three decades, Kant's theory of peace has attracted the attention of scholars well beyond the circle of political philosophers. The three political reforms advocated in Towards Perpetual Peace—republicanism within states, international federation, and the
Philosophy Today
Beyond Kant’s Political Cosmopolitanism in advance
2019 •
Xunwu Chen
Kant bequeaths to the present discourse of cosmopolitanism the question of how a constitutionalized global order without a world state is possible. At the core of the matter is what a legitimate public authority as the necessary enactor of the cosmopolitan sovereignty is. Habermas’s answer that this is a three-tiered, networked realm of public authority is a plausible one. The key to Habermas’s answer is the concept of a political constitution for a pluralist world. If such a constitution is possible, I believe that we need a new concept of constitution as a body politic of norms, statute laws, common laws, legal precedents, and international treaties; on this point, we should take the UK constitution as the paradigm and recognize that since the end of World War II, such a body politic of norms, statute laws, common laws, legal precedents, and international treaties of the global human community has been emerging.
Problemos
Kant’s Criticism of European Colonialism: A Contemporary Account of Cosmopolitan Law
2018 •
NURIA SANCHEZ MADRID
Revue Française de Science Politique (in English)
Re-evaluating Kant’s cosmopolitan law. European citizenship as a transition from the right to visitation to the right to residence
Globalization and Cosmopolitanism: Tracing a Kantian Trajectory to Peace
2006 •
Philip J Rossi
Kant's Criticism of European Colonialism. A Contemporary Account of Cosmopolitan Right
Nuria Sánchez Madrid
This paper tackles Kant's juridical arguments for criticizing European colonialist practices, taking into account some recent accounts of this issue given by Kant scholars as Ripstein, Cavallar, Fliks-chuh, Stilz and Vanhaute. First, I focus on Kant's grounding of cosmopolitan union as a juridical requirement stemming of the systematic character of the rational doctrine of right. Second, I pay attention to Kant's remarks about how the European nations ought to establish commercial relations with other nations in the world and how they should approach non-state people. I draw the conclusion that Kant's juridical-political writings should be consider as a forerunning corpus for furthering an anti-colonialist mind in the European philosophy of Enlightenment.
The Cosmopolitan Trilemma - An Analysis of Kant's and Habermas' Conceptions of a Cosmopolitan World Order
Paul Juergensen
Cavallar, Cosmopolitanisms in Kant's Philosophy
Georg Cavallar
Kant, Global Politics and Cosmopolitan Law. A Reply to G. Geismann
2023 •
claudio corradetti
In this reply I rebut Mr Geismann's unproved charges to my work on Kant's cosmopolitanism. In my study I argue for a novel reading for the 'world republic' (Weltrepublik) in regulative terms. I defend also a non-perfectionist model of politics which for Kant brings us to a continuous normative striving for improvement. Unfortunately, Geismann has deliberately misunderstood the distinctive proposal I advance. The dismissive attitude towards my thesis reveals also discriminatory structural problem of certain Kantian conservative scholarship towards innovative proposals coming from academically not-aligned interpreters.
