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Cambridge Critical Guides
Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim
Lively debates about narratives of historical progress, the conditions for international justice, and the implications of globalisation have prompted a renewed interest in Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim. The essays in this volume, written by distinguished contributors, discuss the questions that are at the core of Kant's investigations. Does the study of history convey any philosophical insight? Can it provide political guidance? How are we to understand the destructive and bloody upheavals that constitute so much of human experience? What connections, if any, can be traced between politics, economics, and morality? What is the relation between the rule of law in the nation state and the advancement of a cosmopolitan political order? These questions and others are examined and discussed in a book that will be of interest to philosophers, social and political theorists, and intellectual and cultural historians.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
270 pages, Hardcover
First published March 31, 2008
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July 18, 2016
Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim, edited by Amelie Oksenberg Rorty, is a great book that dissects Immanuel Kant's philosophy of history from virtually every conceivable angle, pointing up its success, citing its flaws, a book that is extremely helpful in Kant scholarship overall. As the name suggests, the essay collection focuses on Kant's work "Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim," where Kant gave his clearest expression of history.
Here is Kant's basic view in that essay. It's that history can be interpreted as if humanity is making progress, and this progress is going to culminate in a more cosmopolitan society. What this kind of cosmopolitan society is supposed to be is a bit unclear, as is addressed in some of these essays, but to give you a sense for what it might look like, Kant's view here inspired the establishment of the United Nations. All the nations working together according to a uniform international law is something like what Kant seemed to have in mind, and which we have today at least in form if not in fact.
Another major issue Kant addresses, and which these critical essays also address, is the extent to which there actually is progress in human history. Kant's proposal is a nice sidestep, to say that we should at least act as though it is. That is to say, we should try to find a thread of progress and follow it on out.
That doesn't mean, however, that we shouldn't be critical of moments where there is clearly no progress. Kant also writes in his essay that social conflict is what appears to drive human progress, and so a good historian or journalist would be well within her right to document the setbacks or the areas where nations or peoples fail to meet their goals. Kant's view of social progress through conflict and the call to be critical and vigilant about such conflict predates Marx, so it's also interesting that Kant was planting the seeds for these kinds of ideas we would later see in G.W.F. Hegel and Karl Marx.
This is a good reference book, and one I will return to again.
Here is Kant's basic view in that essay. It's that history can be interpreted as if humanity is making progress, and this progress is going to culminate in a more cosmopolitan society. What this kind of cosmopolitan society is supposed to be is a bit unclear, as is addressed in some of these essays, but to give you a sense for what it might look like, Kant's view here inspired the establishment of the United Nations. All the nations working together according to a uniform international law is something like what Kant seemed to have in mind, and which we have today at least in form if not in fact.
Another major issue Kant addresses, and which these critical essays also address, is the extent to which there actually is progress in human history. Kant's proposal is a nice sidestep, to say that we should at least act as though it is. That is to say, we should try to find a thread of progress and follow it on out.
That doesn't mean, however, that we shouldn't be critical of moments where there is clearly no progress. Kant also writes in his essay that social conflict is what appears to drive human progress, and so a good historian or journalist would be well within her right to document the setbacks or the areas where nations or peoples fail to meet their goals. Kant's view of social progress through conflict and the call to be critical and vigilant about such conflict predates Marx, so it's also interesting that Kant was planting the seeds for these kinds of ideas we would later see in G.W.F. Hegel and Karl Marx.
This is a good reference book, and one I will return to again.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review