ABSTRACT
Immanuel Kant argues that group loyalty and cosmopolitanism are both fraught with dangers. In articulating the idea of "cosmopolitan right," Kant seeks precisely to overcome the exclusion of foreigners from the fold of moral respect, while at the same time securing a space for nations and groups to pursue distinct ways of life. Kant's theory of cosmopolitan right is informed especially by his understandings of humanity and of human diversity. In Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, Kant suggests that human beings are comprised of at least three fundamental strands: animality, humanity, and personality. For Kant, humanity and culture are fundamentally linked concepts. Kant contemptuously labels such rationalizations of European imperialism as "Jesuitism" and writes that "it is easy to see through this veil of injustice." In order to understand more fully the nature of Kant's opposition to imperialism, however, one must examine his writings on cosmopolitan right, the primary critical purpose of which is to condemn European imperialism.
