Kant and the Theory and Practice of International Right
Description:... - This book favours an ‘embedded’ approach: Kant is not the philosopher who has his head in the clouds, but the philosopher trying to bridge the gulf between the ideal and the real.
- The book paints a rather unconventional picture of Kant’s philosophy of international right. He is not only the philosopher of grandiose, sweeping statements about justice and peace. The picture I have presented in this book is different: it is the ‘pedantic’ Kant of numerous definitions, qualifications and caveats. Kant reflects upon his ruler, King Frederick II. and his foreign policy. Kant employs the faculty of reflective judgement when thinking about war. He goes beyond the conventional democratic peace proposition with his reflections on republicanism and peace. He struggles with the principle of non-intervention or the right to go to war and how to apply them in concrete situations, and so on.
- Kant’s theory combines two elements, the idealistic and normative element focusing on principles and the goal, as well as reflections on how to attain this goal and put these principles into practice.
- Kant goes beyond various ‘schools’ in IRT with his anticipatory realism: international relations different from our present ones are a real possibility and a proper goal of human endeavour.
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