There exists a standard view of Kant’s position on global order and this view informs much of current Kantian political theory. This standard view is that Kant advocates a voluntary league of states and rejects the ideal of a federative state of states as dangerous, unrealistic, and conceptually incoherent. This standard interpretation is usually thought to fall victim to three equally standard objections. In this essay, I argue that the standard interpretation is mistaken and that the three standard objections miss (...) their target. Kant does advocate the establishment of a non-coercive league of states, at least in his mature political writings (such as Perpetual Peace and the Metaphysics of Morals), but he does so for different reasons than is usually thought and without rejecting the ideal that a world federation of states eventually be realized. I end by indicating how Kant’s revised view can be made productive for present-day philosophical purposes. (shrink)

Kant’s 1795 essay on perpetual peace has been lauded as one of his most important and influential political texts as well as one of the most important texts on peace. Kant’s text was largely forgotten until the 1980s and 1990s, with numerous commentaries appearing around the time of its 200 years existence. The French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s interest in Kant’s text appears to have arisen around the same time, and his analyses of this text continued after the turn of the (...) century. The references to Kant’s essay in Derrida’s texts appear mostly in the context of a discussion of the concept of hospitality. The latter concept is understood by Derrida as including both a demand for absolute hospitality, that is, hospitality without the imposition of any limitations, as well as a demand, in the interests of survival, for such limitations or conditions. A negotiation between these dimensions of hospitality is ultimately required. The aim of this article is to elucidate Derrida’s analysis of Kant’s essay, specifically his recasting of the concept of peace as absolute hospitality, as well as to briefly outline its implications for international and cosmopolitan law. (shrink)

O artigo trata de dois pontos polêmicos e interconectados na teoria de Kant sobre o direito das gentes: a natureza da personalidade dos Estados e o arranjo soberano da República Mundial. Em relação ao primeiro ponto, procura-se mostrar que as dificuldades dos intérpretes de Kant em determinar o tipo e o fundamento da personalidade dos Estados decorrem de diferenças no modo como Kant implicitamente considera a função da lei moral, o que permite mostrar que os direitos relativos à guerra não (...) são uma espécie de direito natural dos Estados, mas se fundam na dignidade dos indivíduos. A elucidação desse primeiro ponto também contribui para a compreensão, no segundo ponto, dos motivos das dificuldades de Kant em encontrar um arranjo consistente para a soberania dos Estados na constituição de uma República Mundial. Dificuldades essas que fazem com que ele não exponha diretamente as características dessa República Mundial, mas apenas indiretamente por meio de críticas aos modelos do Estado Mundial e da Liga de Estados. (shrink)

Introducing articles on Kant’s Toward Perpetual Peace, various interpretative questions are discussed. Externally, alleged senility is contrasted with political maturity, just as irony and rhetorics are discussed in relation to (self-)censorship and the French Revolution. Internally, Kant scholars have discussed, e.g. the use of ‘eternal’ vs. ‘perpetual’, the question of preventive war, and, more in general, the relation between Kant’s political writings. In relation to the three definitive articles on state law, law of people and world citizen law, issues are, (...) e.g., Kant’s conception of constitution, democracy and their relation to peace, peace federation vs. world republic, thesis vs. hypothesis, and various ideas of sovereignty, as well as cosmopolitanism vs. world citizen right. Finally, questions concerning morality vs. politics and concerning transcendental publicity are presented. (shrink)

Esse texto tem por objetivo apresentar em linhas gerais a proposta de Otfried Höffe sobre a república mundial. Para tanto, iniciar-se-á com o ponto de partida de Höffe, a saber, o fenômeno da globalização, de onde são apontadas as principais atividades e problemas da república mundial. Em seguida, passa-se a analisar os dois níveis da proposta, o nível nacional e o nível internacional ou global da república mundial. Por fim, concluir-se-á com uma tentativa de comparação da proposta de Höffe com (...) a ideia de uma federação de Estados livres apresentada por Immanuel Kant em À paz perpétua. (shrink)