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 t ...