Kant, Idea for a Universal History (1784)

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Kant, Idea for a Universal History (1784)

• A running commentary
• by
• Friedel Weinert

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Kant, Universal History

• Some further Principles of the Enlightenment
• Secularisation of accepted beliefs religion,
  science, morals, politics
• Politics, subject to rational scrutiny
• Political Institutions, open to rational
  reconstruction
• Some Principles of Kants Political Philosophy
• The state governed according to the rule of law
• Guarantee of civil liberties
• Idea of a social contract
• Rights of a citizen in a state freedom,
  equality, vote
• Peace between nations federation of states

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Kant, Universal History

• Kants Idea of a Universal History
• Human actions are determined in accordance with
  natural laws
• This idea is not new to Kant the Enlightenment
  generally believed in the progress of humanity
  towards rationality or perfectibility
  (Condorcet). Marx and Comte believed that human
  societies evolved according to necessary
  historical laws.
• Kant individuals and collectivities seem to
  pursue no overall rational purpose, but there is
  a hidden plan of nature
• Human species moves towards a slow and steady
  development of mans original capacities Example
  - the development of science

Some guiding principles for a teleological
history of the human species
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Kant, Universal History

• First Proposition
• There is a teleological order of nature all
  natural capacities of a creature will develop
  according to their purpose
• Second Proposition
• Natural capacities in human beings are directed
  towards the use of reason use of justifiable
  rules and methods but they can only fully
  develop in the species, not in the individual. No
  limits are set to the projects of reason
  Perfectibility
• But it takes time for the natural capacities to
  blossom in the species. Enlightenment acquires a
  history - it is a progress towards the employment
  of reason, in all spheres.
• The history of science (from Kepler to Newton)
  givens an inkling of this progress - apply to
  social life.

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Kant, Universal History

• Third Proposition
• Humans are responsible for the progress of their
  own species towards enlightenment and
  emancipation, through the cultivation of reason.
• Fourth Proposition
• Nature employs antagonism within society to bring
  about the development of innate capacities
• Antagonism the unsocial sociability in men
• General resistance of everyone against everyone
  else

Honing of talents, emergence of culture
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Kant, Universal History

• Fifth Proposition
• Nature compels humans to work towards the
  establishment of a civil society
• Such a civil society can administer universal
  justice
• Only a just civil constitution will guarantee
  that Nature achieves her aim the emancipation of
  mankind
• A just civil constitution combines freedom under
  external laws with irresistible force
• The only laws that can be imposed on a people are
  laws which the people would accept to impose on
  themselves

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Kant, Universal History

• Sixth Proposition
• Man is an animal who needs a master (in the human
  species) the species also needs a master
• Protection of Freedom through political
  structures
• Seventh Proposition
• We can only establish a perfect civic
  constitution if the relations between states
  become subject to law
• Need for a lawful federation of states under a
  commonly accepted international right
• Establishment of peace

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Kant, Universal History

• Eighth Proposition
• History of human race as a whole can be
  interpreted as the realisation of a hidden plan
  of nature to bring about a perfect political
  constitution
• This is the only possible state in which all
  natural capacities of mankind will be realised
• We must regard the history of the human race as
  unfolding according to Providence a higher
  purpose towards which we are compelled
• Ninth Proposition
• A philosophical model of a universal history of
  the human race towards emancipation is a
  regulatory idea it is the perspective from which
  the historical data can be reconstructed