KANT or Can’t
Cosmopolitanism and
Human Rights
Questions [theory and practice]
• According to Kant, the principle of happiness
cannot provide the justification needed to to
establish a legitimate government. Why does
Kant claim this? Do you agree or not? Why?
• How does Kant describe right of
equality/freedom/independence? How far do
these rights extend in civil state?
• What does Kant mean when he says, “human
race…engaged in progressive improvement in
relation to the moral end of its existence”? Do
you agree or not? Why?
• Why cannot freedom only in one country
sustain? What is the solution?
Kant…pure idealism!
• Hume (empiricist critique of causality)
• Idealism (to offer a new epistemology)
– There is a true reality, but there is a limit
to what we can know.
– The world exists because mind categorizes
(reconstruct) the perceptions in the mind
[law of nature]
– We cannot know who the world is, but we
can know how it ought to be.
Moral Theory
• moral theory vs. epistemology [necessity versus
self-determination]
– Can make choices as rational being
– Moral judgment about the way world should be
[duty versus desire].
• This judgment should be universal;
Universalization of moral choice [categorical
imperative]
– Act so as to extend the realm of self-determination,
at least so as not to limit it.
– Respect other’s ability to make moral decisions.
• “Never act except in such a way that I
can also will that my maxim/principle
could become universal law.
Rights of Man [what is right?]
– [application of universal principles of
morality to the sphere of law]
– [public law; rule of law]
• Rights of man are universal [freedom]
limits?
• Rights of man: public statement turned
into law [equality] anyone excluded?
• Rights of citizens only apply to
members of a political community
[independence] anyone excluded?
Think about possibility of progress…
• What institutional forms are necessary
for progress?
• Given the gap between the world as it
IS, and the world as it OUGHT to be, it
is very easy to become cynical and just
give up. If we are to work for a better
world, we need reasons to hope that it
is at least possible. What reasons does
Kant give us?
Questions [the metaphysics of morals]
• What do you think about how Kant
defines “right”? How is it related to
universality and coercion?
• What is “right of citizen”? What is
“international right”? What is
“cosmopolitan right”?
• According to Kant, how are human
rights, rights of citizens, international,
and cosmopolitan rights related?
Questions [Perpetual Peace]
• How would Kant respond to Westphalian
reasoning [e.g. no law above states]?
• What are the prerequisites for perpetual
peace? Do they guarantee perpetual peace?
• What are the specific conditions set for the
rule of law at the international level?
• What is the relationship between perpetual
peace and and human rights?