Kant's Idea for a Universal History with Cosmopolitan Purpose

Question: In his essay “Idea for a Universal History with Cosmopolitan Purpose” Kant argues that the greatest problem for the human species is “that of attaining a civil society which can administer justice universally.” Discuss how Kant argues for this claim and what his proposal is for achieving it historically You may supplement your answer by briefly outlining one contemporary version of Kant’s proposal.. Do you think Kant’s proposal has at all been approximated in modernity? (Word count1820 words)

First this article will explore the claims which ground Kant’s argument for a universal

history by discussing the main arguments within each proposition in the essay. It will

then discuss the idea for a philosophical account of human history (eighth and ninth

propositions), it will provide a brief explanation of John Rawls’ contemporary, Kantian

influenced “Law of Peoples” and will finally briefly observe Kantian influence in

contemporary international politics offering some critique of the Kantian universal notion of freedom.

Kant begins the essay with an account of nature. The first proposition describes a

determinism in nature “All natural capacities of a creature are destined sooner or later to

be developed completely and in conformity with their end”(Kant, p42). For Kant all

things within nature are causally linked and entail some kind of purpose or destiny. Next

Kant proposes that the key natural endowment of human beings is reason, and that the

full capacity of reason can be reached ‘only in the species but not in the

individual”(Kant,p42). The claim is that “every individual man would have to live a vast

amount of time if he were to learn how to make complete use of all his natural

capacities”(Kant,43). This focus on nature is important throughout the whole argument

because the ‘universal history’ arises naturally through reason.

In the third proposition Kant describes a kind of historical progress in relation to human

reason. The claim is that reason is something not innate or instinctual but something

eveloped and seemingly boundless, its development a historical process occurring over

many generations, pursuing some natural goal. Kant suggests that it is ‘natures will’ that

humans fully develop their natural capacity of reason. For Kant progress arrives through a kind of struggle throughout time, human re...

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... it fails to consider concrete aspects of reality which may limit this progress

towards the ‘right’ principles.

Finally Kant’s link between rationality and nature is seems too metaphorical, as opposed

to theoretical. It seems in a sense tautologous to assume that because reason arises

as a natural human trait that it follows a purely naturally determined path. One could

argue that the very nature of reason is one that transcends the intentions of anything

natural.

In his essay “Idea for a Universal history with a Cosmopolitan Purpose” Kant starts with a kind of deterministic view of nature which results in a deterministic view of politics. He

arrives at this by an account of human nature which suggest that autonomy arises because

of the “unsocial sociability” of human beings. It is hard to deny that contemporary notions of freedom are heavily influenced by Kant, particularly in the global sphere however it is

hard to say whether there is any real sense of political progess occurring throughout

history.

eferences:

Immanuel Kant, “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose”, Political Writing ,p41-53

John Rawls, “The Law of Peoples”, p 11-23