Kant's model of peace famously rests on three pillars: republicanism within states, a supranational institution between states, the right to visit at the level of relations between states and foreigners. The pillars corresponds to the three different levels of Recht that, from 1795 on, Kant distinguishes with full clarity: public, international, and cosmopolitan right. The exact determination of each of these pillars has been the object of fascinating debates among interpreters, but it is safe to say that Kant's plea in favor of a supranational institution has attracted most scholarly attention. Among the many interpretative challenges posed by the idea that “The Rights of Nations shall be based on a Federation of Free States”, two are particularly relevant for contemporary politics. The first relates to Kant’s reasons for preferring with some hesitation a federation, with limited or null coercive powers, over a world state. The second relates to the membership criteria: does Kant think that any state or only republics are allowed to enter the Federation? This paper tackles both hermeneutical puzzles. In the first part, it reconstructs the evolution of Kant’s thought on the nature of the supranational institution. In the second, it defends the idea that Kant's mature preference for the Federation cannot be dismissed as dictated neither by merely practical reasons (it is too difficult to obtain and therefore beyond a realistic utopia) nor by a conservative setback on the part of Kant. The paper argues that there are principled reasons to prefer the federation and that these deserve full scrutiny. In the second part, the open access reading is defended against the restricted access reading, dominant within and without Kant scholarship. We argue that both textual and systematic considerations suggest that Kant never meant his Federation to be open only to states that have already made the transition from despotism to republicanism.

The Kantian Federation: Two Hermeneutical Problems

Luigi Caranti
2018-01-01

Abstract

Kant's model of peace famously rests on three pillars: republicanism within states, a supranational institution between states, the right to visit at the level of relations between states and foreigners. The pillars corresponds to the three different levels of Recht that, from 1795 on, Kant distinguishes with full clarity: public, international, and cosmopolitan right. The exact determination of each of these pillars has been the object of fascinating debates among interpreters, but it is safe to say that Kant's plea in favor of a supranational institution has attracted most scholarly attention. Among the many interpretative challenges posed by the idea that “The Rights of Nations shall be based on a Federation of Free States”, two are particularly relevant for contemporary politics. The first relates to Kant’s reasons for preferring with some hesitation a federation, with limited or null coercive powers, over a world state. The second relates to the membership criteria: does Kant think that any state or only republics are allowed to enter the Federation? This paper tackles both hermeneutical puzzles. In the first part, it reconstructs the evolution of Kant’s thought on the nature of the supranational institution. In the second, it defends the idea that Kant's mature preference for the Federation cannot be dismissed as dictated neither by merely practical reasons (it is too difficult to obtain and therefore beyond a realistic utopia) nor by a conservative setback on the part of Kant. The paper argues that there are principled reasons to prefer the federation and that these deserve full scrutiny. In the second part, the open access reading is defended against the restricted access reading, dominant within and without Kant scholarship. We argue that both textual and systematic considerations suggest that Kant never meant his Federation to be open only to states that have already made the transition from despotism to republicanism.
2018
978-3-487-15732-0
Kant, Federation, International Peace, World Goverment
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/335784
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