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Is Humanity (Morally) Progressing? Kant’s Philosophy of History under a Cosmopolitan Perspective

  • Claudio Corradetti

    Claudio Corradetti is Associate Professor in Political Philosophy at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. In addition to Kant’s and Machiavelli’s political philosophy, he has worked extensively on human rights, transitional justice and the tradition of the Frankfurt School. Some among his publications include: Kant and the Idea of Progress, Cambridge University Press (in press); “Was Kant a Cosmopolitan Racist?”, Kant Studien 115 (4), 2024, pp. 454–471; C. Corradetti, “Machiavelli’s Pendulum: Political Action, Time and Constitutional Change”, Philosophy & Social Criticism 50 (10), pp. 1541– 1563; Relativism and Human Rights. A Theory of Pluralist Universalism, Springer, Dordrecht, 2nd ed., 2022; Kant, Global Politics and Cosmopolitan Law. The World Republic as a Regulative Idea of Reason, Routledge, London-New York, 2020. He co-edited the anthology Theorizing Transitional Justice, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot UK, 2015.
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Kant’s Cosmopolitanism and Migration
This chapter is in the book Kant’s Cosmopolitanism and Migration

Abstract

What is Kant’s view on progress? In Kant, there appears to be a link between natural and moral purposiveness, on the one side, and the instantiation of legal-political cosmopolitanism, on the other side. The result of this connection is straightforward: the more humankind develops rational inclinations, the more it tends towards institutional arrangements promoting cosmopolitan values. History provides evidence of this: the French revolution was indeed an event generating in observers a disinterested sense of sympathy and a moral sense of humanity and commonwealth. While Kant did not embrace a determinist conception of evolution, he considered that biological and political attainment of the moral standard occurs in stages. This is a cognitively thinkable process and a plausible hope to have: indeed, it represents a historically realizable aim.

Abstract

What is Kant’s view on progress? In Kant, there appears to be a link between natural and moral purposiveness, on the one side, and the instantiation of legal-political cosmopolitanism, on the other side. The result of this connection is straightforward: the more humankind develops rational inclinations, the more it tends towards institutional arrangements promoting cosmopolitan values. History provides evidence of this: the French revolution was indeed an event generating in observers a disinterested sense of sympathy and a moral sense of humanity and commonwealth. While Kant did not embrace a determinist conception of evolution, he considered that biological and political attainment of the moral standard occurs in stages. This is a cognitively thinkable process and a plausible hope to have: indeed, it represents a historically realizable aim.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Acknowledgment
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I Normative Accounts of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Order
  6. Borders, Cosmopolitan Sovereignty, and Global Mobility. A Kantian Account of Political Interdependence 7
  7. Cosmopolitanism and Political Realism: Kant’s Double Legacy and Contemporary Political Challenge 27
  8. Is Humanity (Morally) Progressing? Kant’s Philosophy of History under a Cosmopolitan Perspective 43
  9. Part II Kant’s Cosmopolitanism: Between Past and Future
  10. The Rights of Foreigners. Grotius, Pufendorf, and Kant 71
  11. Kant’s Cosmopolitan Philosophy in the Face of the Challenges of Migration 89
  12. No One Is Illegal (Only) in the Kingdom of Ends: Migration and the Double Legacy of Kant’s Political Philosophy 113
  13. Part III Contemporary Migration Under the Lens of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Right
  14. The Right to Dwell (Anywhere) on Earth and the Promise of Human Community 137
  15. Kant, Migration, and the Cosmopolitan Right Not to Be Treated with Hostility 159
  16. Kant and Migration: State and Demos Borders 181
  17. Notes on Contributors 203
  18. Author Index
  19. Subject Index
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111707426-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Table of Contents V
  3. Acknowledgment
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I Normative Accounts of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Order
  6. Borders, Cosmopolitan Sovereignty, and Global Mobility. A Kantian Account of Political Interdependence 7
  7. Cosmopolitanism and Political Realism: Kant’s Double Legacy and Contemporary Political Challenge 27
  8. Is Humanity (Morally) Progressing? Kant’s Philosophy of History under a Cosmopolitan Perspective 43
  9. Part II Kant’s Cosmopolitanism: Between Past and Future
  10. The Rights of Foreigners. Grotius, Pufendorf, and Kant 71
  11. Kant’s Cosmopolitan Philosophy in the Face of the Challenges of Migration 89
  12. No One Is Illegal (Only) in the Kingdom of Ends: Migration and the Double Legacy of Kant’s Political Philosophy 113
  13. Part III Contemporary Migration Under the Lens of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Right
  14. The Right to Dwell (Anywhere) on Earth and the Promise of Human Community 137
  15. Kant, Migration, and the Cosmopolitan Right Not to Be Treated with Hostility 159
  16. Kant and Migration: State and Demos Borders 181
  17. Notes on Contributors 203
  18. Author Index
  19. Subject Index
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