Introducing Theme and Articles

danish yearbook of philosophy 50 (2017) 7-45 brill.com/dyp Introducing Theme and Articles Asger Sørensen Aarhus University [email protected] Introduction Toward Perpetual Peace is a fascinating book. It was published first in 1795, reprinted with minor changes the following year and immediately translated into English, French, Polish, Swedish and Danish.1 Hence, from the outset it was an unconditional success. And no wonder. Kant had already by then ac- quired a well-deserved transnational fame, the theme was highly relevant in a part of Europe marred by wars and revolutions, and at first sight the book is quite appealing to the general audience, i.e. very short and explicit in its com- position, becoming in its introductory remarks and the sections being ordered with numbers in an apparently straightforward and simple way. Moreover, by the reputation of the author, the argument would be expected to be worth reading, and the matter at hand thus seems much less intimidating than, for instance, his three monumental Critiques. The title being as it is, we must assume Kant’s argument to be about peace. As Otfried Höffe stresses, however, this simple fact has often not been given the attention that it deserves. Strange as it may be, peace is not a theme discussed intensely by modern philosophers. Kant, however, argued peace to be the goal of history already in his 1784 essay “Idea of a History in the Perspective of a 1 See, e.g., Karl Vorländer, “Einleitung des Herausgebers,” in Immanuel Kant, Kleinere Schriften zur Geschichtsphilosophie, Ethik und Politik, ed. Karl Vorländer (Leipzig: Felix Meiner, 1922), xlii–xliii. When it comes to Danish translations, Toward Perpetual Peace has in fact been translated at least three times. The first translation referred to by Vorländer was published as Den evige fred. Et philosophiskt udkast (Kjøbenhavn: J.H. Schubothes Forlag, 1796), translated by “U. af R.” (according to the preface to the second translation). The second translation was also entitled Den evige fred (Fagerstrand pr. Høvik: Bibliotek for de tusen hjem, 1888), but translated and prefaced by Fredrik Bajer, who in 1908 received the Nobel peace prize. Finally, the third translation was entitled Til den evige fred (København: Gyldendal, 1995), this time with introduction and notes by the translator Mogens Chrom Jacobsen, and this edition was updated by Jacobsen and republished as an e-book by the publisher Sommer in 2015. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/24689300-05001003 <UN> 8 Sørensen World Citizen,” i.e. while still working on the Critiques, and peace is a recur- rent theme in many of the subsequent works, thus making it a “fundamental theme […] of his entire philosophy.”2 This being the case, as Volker Gerhardt has argued, Toward Perpetual Peace must be considered not just a peace project, but a statement of the condition for politics in general. Hence, there is a tradition in political philosophy for considering peace as fundamental for politics, going from Plato and Aristotle over Cicero and Augustin to the re- naissance Marsilius of Padua and his famous treatise Defensor pacis, i.e. The Defender of Peace, and this approach, as well as the preoccupation, is also en- countered in the works of Machiavelli, Hobbes and Rousseau,3 the latter two being among Kant’s main inspirations. Worth mentioning is also that Luther was preoccupied with peace.4 Hence, Kant’s peace project is definitely not the first in the history of thought. However, according to Höffe, innovation must be acknowledged in the fact that peace is no longer considered a question of theology, but of legal and political philosophy.5 Following Hobbes, Kant stresses that war is the natural condition and that peace therefore must be “estab- lished [gestiftet]”6 [pp 8:349]. Establishing peace through law and right was the project,7 and this is still a relevant project today, where the world is haunted by globalized capitalism, political crises, and climate changes. Hence, in spite of many good intentions, the number of wars and refugees are increasing, and therefore Kant’s project for eternal peace is sadly more relevant than ever. I Interpretative Approaches: Externality vs. Internality In spite of Kant’s clearly stated intention, many scholars have since the publi- cation of this small pamphlet spent quite considerable amounts of time trying 2 Otfried Höffe, Kant’s Cosmopolitan Theory of Law and Peace [2001], trans. Alexandra Newton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 135–36. 3 See Volker Gerhardt, Immanuel Kants Entwurf >Zum ewigen Frieden<. Eine Theorie der Politik (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgeselleschaft, 1995), 27–31. 4 See, e.g., José Luis Villacañas Berlanga, “Hombre, historia y derecho en Kant,” in Ética y Antropología: un dilema kantiano, ed. Roberto R. Aramayo and Faustino Oncina (Granada: Comares, 1999), 199. 5 See Höffe, Kant’s Cosmopolitan Theory, 137. 6 All quotes from non-English sources are translated by the present author, although some- times consulting available translations. 7 In German one discusses these issues in terms of ‘Recht’, and in Danish we have the equiva- lent ‘ret.’ When discussing the same issues in English, however, we must use, and distinguish between, at least two terms, namely ‘law’ and ‘right.’ danish yearbook of philosophy 50 (2017) 7-45 <UN>.

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