Kant’s ‘idea’, as he calls it, may be summarized in four points: (i) Universal history is a feasible ideal, but demands a union of historical and philosophical thought: the facts must be understood as well as narrated, seen from within and not only from outside, (ii) It presupposes a plan, i.e. it exhibits a progress, or shows something as coming progressively into being, (iii) That which is thus coming into existence is human rationality, i.e. intelligence, moral freedom, (iv) The means by which it is being brought into existence is human irrationality, i.e. passion, ignorance, selfishness.
