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Perpetual Peace and Other Essays

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 405 ratings · 14 reviews

Zum ewigen Frieden. Ein philosophischer Entwurf (Königsberg: Friedrich Nicolovius, 1795), 104pp. 2nd expanded edition (Königsberg: Nicolovius, 1796), 112pp. [Ak. 8:343-86] “Toward Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Project.” Translated by Ted Humphrey in Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace & Other Essays (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983), pp.107-39. Translated by H. B. Nisbet in...more

Paperback, 152 pages

Published February 1st 1983 by Hackett Publishing Company (first published 1795)

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Nov 28, 2011 Ryan Hirst rated it 4 of 5 stars

Four stars with a qualification: It's Kant. He assumes the structure, once built, will work by magic, which is both silly and untrue.

However, the structure he builds in this essay is beautiful. On the shoulders of this essay, the League of Nations was founded.

Obviously, we are able to manipulate structures against their agreed purposes. Perpetual Peace is only a declaration of what one might build. His assurances that, once built, it will be inviolable, are hollow.

Still, the declaration is a com...more

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Dec 17, 2010 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jamie by: Prof Sherman

Shelves: philosophy-theory, read-in-2010

Surprisingly fun read, as I've never been able to get into Kant before. Here, Immanuel wants to figure out how to create an ideal cosmopolitan world, where states are sovereign but mutually cooperative and the nation itself best facilitates the morality of its subjects. For Kant, this means idealizing a republican state rather than a democratic one (which he sees as enabling a kind of mob morality/reign) and ensuring that the distinction between the public and private usage of reason remains cle...more Surprisingly fun read, as I've never been able to get into Kant before. Here, Immanuel wants to figure out how to create an ideal cosmopolitan world, where states are sovereign but mutually cooperative and the nation itself best facilitates the morality of its subjects. For Kant, this means idealizing a republican state rather than a democratic one (which he sees as enabling a kind of mob morality/reign) and ensuring that the distinction between the public and private usage of reason remains clear and balanced (public: a subject in under the constraint of another, and so must use his reason skeptically, but ultimately within the bounds of his patron's conception of reason--a clergyman would be an example; private - scholars and philosophers exemplify the 'private' reasoners for Kant).

Part of the reason this was so fun is because Kant just has a friggin' weird imagination. His essay on the "Speculative Beginning of History," where he basically imagines the emergence of reason/civilization by outlining the 'reality' of genesis; & also his essay on "The End of All Things," which is basically a meditation on the apocalypse (complete with an understanding of the end of the world as spawned through the betrayal of Christian ideals by its practitioners)--these are just completely bizarre, albeit logical, and really fantastic reads, even if, like me, you are an atheist, and have little interest in faith, religion, or the afterlife.

Nevertheless, Kant's exploration of *why* we require the idea of an 'after' to our sensuous world is truly fascinating, and I think holds even if you have no religious affiliation of belief. It seems we cannot reach perfected reason or morality in this world--Kant's notion of perpetual peace, as I understand it, lies only in the afterlife; in the supersensuous world, which he believes to be unintelligible, as we cannot imagine our 'selves' outside of time and space (which would be his vision of the afterlife). Yet only in that world can our reason come to fruition, and the sensuous world (where we must nonetheless cultivate reason, though it is not the 'natural' state of things--Kant believes we are inclined toward aggression, and develop reason in order to harmonize with the other) will hopefully near its own idealization through a unity of the 'perfected' cosmopolitan state.(less)

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Sep 19, 2007 Poetra Boemi added it Recommends it for: Political teory

Perdamaian Dunia yang Belum Gagal
Khayun Ahmad Noer
“Kondisi perang akhirnya akan membawa manusia pada satu kondisi di mana mereka memimpikan keadaan damai. Mereka menyebar ke berbagai penjuru dunia, mencari kedamaian atas tuntunan perang di bawah bimbingan alam...” Immanuel Kant (Zum Ewigen Frieden, 1795)
Muqaddimah
Orang lebih sering melihat Kant sebagai seorang moralis dan kritikus pengetahuan, daripada politikus yang menghasilkan sebuah mahakarya pemikiran politik. Kant lebih cenderung dikenal k...more Perdamaian Dunia yang Belum Gagal
Khayun Ahmad Noer
“Kondisi perang akhirnya akan membawa manusia pada satu kondisi di mana mereka memimpikan keadaan damai. Mereka menyebar ke berbagai penjuru dunia, mencari kedamaian atas tuntunan perang di bawah bimbingan alam...” Immanuel Kant (Zum Ewigen Frieden, 1795)
Muqaddimah
Orang lebih sering melihat Kant sebagai seorang moralis dan kritikus pengetahuan, daripada politikus yang menghasilkan sebuah mahakarya pemikiran politik. Kant lebih cenderung dikenal karena buku-buku kritik dan metafisiknya daripada buku politiknya, yang termaktub dalam Zum Ewigen Freiden. Padahal, ide politik Kant tak dapat dipungkiri telah menjadi satu sindrom yang telah menggejala di seluruh dunia. Sebuah sindrom universalitas manusia, yang menjadi salah satu pijakan bagi gerakan Humanisme internasional saat ini.
Namun, di sini anda tak akan menemukan pembahasan tentang gerakan humanisme lebih lanjut.
Tema yang akan dibicarakan akan lebih difokuskan pada pemikiran politik Kant itu sendiri. Tema ini menjadi topik utama di pembahasan kali ini bukan karena keunggulannya di antara pemikiran Kant yang lain. Semua pemikiran Kant tentu memiliki keunggulan-keunggulan dengan spesifikasi yang berbeda-beda. Jadi, tema ini diangkat hanya untuk melihat bagaiamanakah konsep politik yang ditawarkan Kant itu. Apakah konsep politik yang diberikan Kant berupa konsep politik yang mengagungkan kebebasan individu seperti yang ditawarkan Locke, ataukah sebuah konsep yang menjadi bayang-bayang pemikiran politik Machiavelli yang menjunjung absolutitas sebuah kekuasaan?
Pemikiran Kant akan segera nampak setelah satu-persatu bagian-bagian dari konsep politiknya dibedah. Pembahasan pertama akan menampakkan sebuah bidang besar yang berisi tentang konsep awal perdamaian pada tataran masyarakat lokal hingga taraf dunia. Di sini akan dijelaskan bagaimana perdamaian itu muncul dan dipertahankan. Pembahasan kedua akan sedikit membicarakan relevansi pemikiran Kant ke dalam realita kekinian, dalam masyarakat yang sudah mengglobal.
Dualisme manusia
Manusia hampir selalu memiliki semacam dualisme di dalam dirinya. Dualisme yang menjadikannya memasuki dua dunia yang berbeda bersamaan. Dunia keberaturan dan ketakberaturan. Dualisme entitas diri itu menampakkan dirinya sebagai “keakuan” dalam dimensi kemanusian dan keakuan dalam dimensi “kebertubuhan”. Dimensi kemanusiaan dengan semangat keberaturan dan dimensi kebertubuhan dengan ketakberaturannya.
Keinginan akan keberaturan dan ketakberaturan ini akan selalu menjadi bagian dari gerak hidup manusia. Di satu sisi mendambakan keberaturan, di sisi lain keberaturan itu tak dapat diwujudkan. Dengan dua kecenderungan ini, akan terjadilah pertarungan antara dua entitas dalam diri manusia itu. dan nampaknya tindakan manusia lebih didominasi oleh kebertubuhan daripada sisi kemanusiaannya. Sisi kebertubuhan yang menjadikan manusia cenderung melakukan tindakan onar. Manusia kemudian lebih suka hidup dalam sisi keliarannya dengan melakukan agresi, keinginan mendominasi yang lain, serakah, cinta kejayaan, dan sebagainya. Jadi keinginan manusia untuk hidup dalam keberaturan akan selalu dikacaukan oleh dominasi kebertubuhan di dalam dirinya.
Posisi yang tak menentu dan dengan segala kebimbangan dalam dirinya, maka manusia menyerahkan upaya keberaturan itu pada tangan alam.
....................................
baca selengkapnya di www.havellar.blogspot.com
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Feb 05, 2012 Zbhall rated it 3 of 5 stars

It is surprising how modern many of Kant's thoughts are. I can't give it 5 stars, though, because he is so damn wordy. The book and essays are not very long, but he could honestly shorten EVERYTHING here by at least 50% without losing anything. Oh well. It's whatever. Worth checking out, I guess, but nothing world changing in the modern world, though it did appear to influence many later works and leaders.

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Oct 22, 2010 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

A must read, if for no other reason than Kant's essay on Enlightenment. This is one of the greatest defenses of scientific and logical reasoning that exists in modern intelletual thought. There are other great essays, and a personal favorite is his reading of the book of genesis. Kant's brilliance is in fact on display in each essays.

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Jul 23, 2010 Cody rated it 3 of 5 stars

lol @ the idea of assiginging a philosophy book you don't completely "Get" either a very high or very low number to look cool

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Oct 07, 2008 Mr. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Find out how we will achieve peace through war and continual conflict. This is an important, though troubling work of political philosophy by the great thinker, though it is mediocre when compared to the historical dialectics of Hegel. For evidence of Kant's racism/ethnocentrism, read the section on Cosmopolitanism, in which Kant effectively excludes all humans outside of the Ancient Greece and the West from the human project. Well, one can't assume a great transcendental thinker will also be en...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Willa Geertsema rated it 5 of 5 stars

A great introduction to Kant - these essays are relatively easy to read and give the true spirit of the Enlightenment, Kant's political insights, and moral issues.

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May 04, 2013 Ahmed Azimov rated it 4 of 5 stars

العلامة الرابعة لواقعيته وان لم تتجاوز حدها الادنى

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Sep 26, 2009 Nisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Bacanya lieur....

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Oct 26, 2010 haetmonger added it

not a fan

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Feb 26, 2013 Nicholas rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy, own

I like many of Kant's ideas, but his writing is so terribly over complicated it deters me from exploring him further.

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Mar 13, 2008 Steph rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: canon

so i wasn't going to add this to my books but i felt like with all the embarrassed admissions i'd been making (romance, etc.), i needed to balance it out with proof that i have read substantive works as well - not that I understood any of this, but it sits on my shelf proudly and pretentiously.

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May 23, 2007 Zahreen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: academic, classics

I love his essay on "Perpetual Peace" - everyone should read this essay - it would make the world a better place...no kidding. It's absolutely idealistic, but idealism is what this world needs - it certainly was what I needed freshman year of college, when I first read the essay.

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Mar 02, 2007 Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Thinkers

Once you've got your tautologic ideas, your metaphyics, what do you do? You go into political theory! And Kant did this better, in my opinion, than anyone. Well, Hegel was no slouch either with his organic Fascism...

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May 13, 2013 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: german, philosophy

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About Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century German philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe and of the late Enlightenment.

His most important work is The Critique of Pure Reason, a critical investigation of reason itself. It encompasses an attack on traditional metaphysics and epistemology, and highligh...more Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century German philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe and of the late Enlightenment.

His most important work is The Critique of Pure Reason, a critical investigation of reason itself. It encompasses an attack on traditional metaphysics and epistemology, and highlights Kant's own contribution to these areas. The other main works of his maturity are The Critique of Practical Reason, which concentrates on ethics, and The Critique of Judgement, which investigates aesthetics and teleology.

Pursuing metaphysics involves asking questions about the ultimate nature of reality. Kant suggested that metaphysics can be reformed through epistemology. He suggested that by understanding the sources and limits of human knowledge we can ask fruitful metaphysical questions. He asked if an object can be known to have certain properties prior to the experience of that object. He concluded that all objects that the mind can think about must conform to its manner of thought. Therefore if the mind can think only in terms of causality – which he concluded that it does – then we can know prior to experiencing them that all objects we experience must either be a cause or an effect. However, it follows from this that it is possible that there are objects of such a nature that the mind cannot think of them, and so the principle of causality, for instance, cannot be applied outside of experience: hence we cannot know, for example, whether the world always existed or if it had a cause. And so the grand questions of speculative metaphysics are off limits, but the sciences are firmly grounded in laws of the mind.

Kant believed himself to be creating a compromise between the empiricists and the rationalists. The empiricists believed that knowledge is acquired through experience alone, but the rationalists maintained that such knowledge is open to Cartesian doubt and that reason alone provides us with knowledge. Kant argues, however, that using reason without applying it to experience will only lead to illusions, while experience will be purely subjective without first being subsumed under pure reason.

Kant’s thought was very influential in Germany during his lifetime, moving philosophy beyond the debate between the rationalists and empiricists. The philosophers Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer saw themselves as correcting and expanding the Kantian system, thus bringing about various forms of German Idealism. Kant continues to be a major influence on philosophy to this day, influencing both Analytic and Continental philosophy.(less)

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