Kant's Political Legacy
Human Rights, Peace, Progress
Author(s) Luigi Caranti
Language: English
Genre(s): Philosophy
Series: Political Philosophy Now
- March 2017 ·216x138mm
- · Hardback - 9781783169795
- · eBook - pdf - 9781783169801
- · eBook - epub - 9781783169818
- · Paperback - 9781786834317
This book focuses on Kant's analysis of three issues crucial for contemporary politics. Starting from a new reading of Kant's account of our innate right to freedom, it highlights how a Kantian foundation of human rights, properly understood and modified where necessary, appears more promising than the foundational arguments currently offered by philosophers. It then compares Kant's model for peace with the apparently similar model of democratic peace to show that the two are profoundly different in content and in quality. The book concludes in analysis of Kant's controversial view of history to rescue it from the idea that his belief in progress is at best over-optimistic and at worst dogmatic.
Why do we believe that humans have rights simply by virtue of being human? Is our world progressing toward a condition of international security or war, as likely today as it has always been? Do we have any grounded hope that we are progressing towards a condition in which human rights and peace will be fully achieved? And how should we act politically to approximate that goal? This book addresses these questions through the lens of one of the most influential philosophers of all time, Immanuel Kant, whose legacy is an indispensable instrument to deal with some of the most pressing problems of our time.