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THE GROWING MIND |
Toward Lasting Peace
Toward Lasting Peace
Immanuel Kant begins this short essay by contrasting the realism of practical politicians with the high-minded theories of philosophers. But his opening line provides a grim reminder that the only alternative to finding a way to avoid the war of each against all is the lasting peace of the graveyard. The advent of total war and the development of nuclear weapons in the twentieth century give Kant’s reflections an urgency he could not have anticipated.
Kant’s Toward Lasting Peace is best known as an early articulation of the idea of a league of nations that could bring “an end to all hostilities,” but what is most important about Kant’s essay is its ability to probe the fundamental principles that shape relations among nations with specific attention to the dynamics of war and peace. For Kant, politics must be grounded in ethics. Neither ethics nor politics can be based on revelation, because there is simply no common authority to which all human beings can appeal to resolve ethical and political questions. Reason is the only court of appeal for all human beings.
Audio Samples:
Quote:
"Standing armies must be abolished over time."
They pose a constant threat to other states by their apparent readiness for war, and they promote competition for a limitless buildup of troops. In the end, the ensuing costs make peace more unbearable than quick attack, and easing that burden leads to preemptive war. Adding to the predicament of killing and being killed as hirelings, human beings tend to become mere machines and tools in the hands of others, such as the state, without accounting for the humanity of each individual person. The voluntary and periodic training of citizens to protect themselves and their homeland from external attacks is entirely different.