Abstract
The paper argues that Kant’s teleology in Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose can be salvaged only if the mechanism of social unsociability, considered as the true center of the essay, is a) detached from the ? by contemporary standards ? hardly defensible notion of ‘natural dispositions’ and b) understood in conjunction with general premises that Kant does not make explicit, but rather takes as self-evidently true. In this perspective, Kant’s teleology is reduced to the affirmationthat, given certain constant features of human beings (mainly, limited benevolence and ability to see their best interest through experience) as well as relatively constant objective circumstances of the world we live in (mainly, availability of finite yet sufficient resources and sustainable growth in a competitive yet peaceful system), an approximation of human affairs towards the ‘cosmopolitan constitution’ is the most likely outcome. The paper moves the first steps towards a defense of this thesis by reformulating Kant’s argument in a way to make it compatible with contemporary science.
Highlights
Kant’s teleology is reduced to the affirmation that, given certain constant features of human beings as well as relatively constant objective circumstances in the external world, an approximation of human affairs towards the ‘cosmopolitan constitution’ is more likely than its opposite or a condition of stagnation
It presupposes that the objective circumstances in which they live are constant enough. If these conditions are met, there is no a priori reason that rules out the possibility of looking at history as a system in which regularities can be detected. With this methodological proviso in mind, let us approach the nine propositions through which Kant attempts to show that history is moving towards a cosmopolitan end
The reformed and dedogmatized teleology we are about to defend is closer to predictions concerning the evolution of complex systems than to providential perspectives on our destiny
Summary
In the introductory remarks to the essay, Kant sketches what seems to be a methodology for ‘universal history’, a project whose ambition he himself ‒ no doubt ‒ recognizes as problematic. At least regarding whether they are going to increase or decline, birthrates are as predictable as any other natural phenomenon.2 The existence of such regularities opens up the possibility of looking at the whole of human affairs as a system in which certain general tendencies can be identified. It presupposes that the objective circumstances in which they live are constant enough If these conditions are met, there is no a priori reason that rules out the possibility of looking at history (the totality of human events) as a system in which regularities can be detected. With this methodological proviso in mind, let us approach the nine propositions through which Kant attempts to show that history is moving towards a cosmopolitan end
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