ABSTRACT

Why is there so much attention on Kant's global politics in present day law and philosophy? This book highlights the potential fruitfulness of Kant's cosmopolitan thought for understanding the complexities of the contemporary political world. It adopts a double methodological strategy by reconstructing a genealogical conceptual journey showing the development of international law, as well as introducing an interpretation of cosmopolitanism centred on Kant's theory of a metaphysics of freedom. The result is a novel focus on Kant's notion of the world republic. The hypothesis here defended is that the world republic stands as a way of thinking about international politics where the possibility of progression towards peace results from its use as a regulative idea.

part 1|57 pages

Kant and the legacy of modernity

chapter §1|37 pages

From universal monarchy to global authority

chapter §2|18 pages

The tradition of internationalist pacifism before Kant

Utopia or cosmopolis?

part 2|38 pages

Kant’s critique of just war theory and colonialism

chapter §3|21 pages

The ‘sorry comforters’

chapter §4|6 pages

Kant’s rejection of just war theory

chapter §5|9 pages

Kant on race and colonialism

part 3|33 pages

Theory and practice

chapter §6|8 pages

Freedom, nature and right

chapter §7|23 pages

The illusions of reason

Freedom as a regulative idea

part 4|74 pages

Juridical constructivism and the cosmopolitan constitution

chapter §8|26 pages

Thinking political, thinking cosmopolitan

chapter §9|26 pages

Constructivism in cosmopolitan law

Kant’s right to visit

chapter §10|20 pages

Thinking with Kant ‘beyond’ Kant

Actualizing sovereignty and citizenship in the transnational sphere