Notre intention dans cet article est de montrer qu’il existe deux versions différentes du souverain bien politique chez Kant et de déterminer laquelle est la plus cohérente avec l’ensemble de sa philosophie pratique. Ayant d’abord soutenu une version forte et étatique du Völkerbund conçu comme un Völkerstadt, Kant s’en éloigne progressivement jusqu’à soutenir une version non étatique de l’ordre juridique et politique international sous la forme d’une association d’États libres. Les arguments d’ordre moral avancés par Kant pour soutenir cette nouvelle (...) version de la Société des Nations ne sont rationnellement acceptables que si nous convenons qu’il a désormais abandonné l’analogie individu / État qui se trouvait pourtant à la base de l’argumentation visant à rendre nécessaire l’institution d’un ordre international. La faillite de l’analogie individu / État annonce que le modèle vers lequel doit s’orienter l’ordre politique international n’est pas l’État de droit coercitif et légal, mais l’idéal de la communauté éthique qui repose sur l’autonomie et l’intention morale des États.The purpose of this article is to determine which of the two representations of the highest political good in Kant’s philosophy is the more consistent with his whole practical philosophy. After having defended a strong version of the highest politicaI good, in which the Völkerbund was more like a Völkerstadt, Kant went on to affirm a non-state version of the international political and juridical order, now conceived as an association of free states. The arguments Kant proposes to ground his new conception of the international political order cannot be very convincing unless we admit that he has definitively abandoned the earlier analogy he made between the individual and the state. The collapsing of this analogy, which he had first proposed in order to justify a legalization of the international political order, shows that the model he has in mind for the highest political good is not the power of the national state but the ideal of an ethical commonwealth which relies only on the autonomy and the moral intentions of the states. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to determine which of the two representations of the highest political good in Kant's philosophy is the more consistent with his whole practical philosophy. After having defended a strong version of the highest political good, in which the Völkerbund was more like a Völkerstadt, Kant went on to affirm a non-state version of the international political and juridical order, now conceived as an association of free states. The arguments Kant proposes to ground his new (...) conception of the international political order cannot be very convincing unless we admit that he has definitively abandoned the earlier analogy he made between the individual and the state. The collapsing of this analogy, which he had first proposed in order to justify a legalization of the international political order, shows that the model he has in mind for the highest political good is not the power of the national state but the ideal of an ethical commonwealth which relies only on the autonomy and the moral intentions of the states. (shrink)

There exists a standard view of Kant’s position on global order and this view informs much of current Kantian political theory. This standard view is that Kant advocates a voluntary league of states and rejects the ideal of a federative state of states as dangerous, unrealistic, and conceptually incoherent. This standard interpretation is usually thought to fall victim to three equally standard objections. In this essay, I argue that the standard interpretation is mistaken and that the three standard objections miss (...) their target. Kant does advocate the establishment of a non-coercive league of states, at least in his mature political writings (such as Perpetual Peace and the Metaphysics of Morals), but he does so for different reasons than is usually thought and without rejecting the ideal that a world federation of states eventually be realized. I end by indicating how Kant’s revised view can be made productive for present-day philosophical purposes. (shrink)

Liberal democracy has long been recognized ‘in principle’ as the political project of modern times. This is not a political philosophy of which we can say that it has followed the words of Hegel and taken flight only with the falling of the dusk. Rather it is a philosophy which observes the Aristotelian maxim that ‘the end aimed at is not knowledge but action’, and therefore concerns itself with a perspective from which the thought of its own recognition is still (...) in question. This thought is the one of international order. Here the figure of Kant steps forth in the role of philosophical and political avant-garde. (shrink)

En este artículo se discuten algunas de las propuestas planteadas en la discusión moderna y contemporánea sobre los modelos normativos para un nuevo orden internacional. Se plantea si es posible demandar como un asunto de justicia la transformación de las relaciones de poder en el orden económico y político internacional entre las sociedades más ricas y las más pobres. Se exponen y critican cuatro diferentes modelos de orden estatal interno e interestatal. El modelo realista de un Estado absolutista que establece (...) la paz en el interior y en el exterior mediante la disuasión, y que niega que puedan plantearse criterios de justicia para definir las relaciones entre los Estados. En segundo lugar se presenta el modelo del Estado de Derecho de tipo kantiano. Le sigue el Estado social de Rawls con dos modelos diferenciados del contrato para definir las relaciones en el interior y en el exterior; y viene, por último, el proyecto cosmopolita. Por último, se critica el proyecto liberal de justicia porque reduce el problema de la reestructuración del orden internacional a un asunto de justicia distributiva y no cuestiona las estructuras del actual sistema económico global. (shrink)

Nowadays Kant's practical philosophy is as highly regarded as his theoretical philosophy. This is an important development since the more constructive side of Kant's philosophy is to be found in his moral and political works. The main task of the Critique of Pure Reason is to clarify its concepts and to get rid of basic errors, and thus only ‘negative’. The moral and political writings, on the other hand, try to expand the scope of reason ‘for practical purposes’ . Establishing (...) principles of moral and political conduct, their main objective is not negative, but constructive. (shrink)

Los fundamentos teológicos y teleológicos ofrecidos por Francisco de Vitoria y John Locke respectivamente para justificar el colonialismo son refutados por Kant en sus escritos tardíos. Esa refutación abre el camino a una comprensión más ambiciosa del cosmopolitismo kantiano. Este no se limita a la hospitalidad con el extranjero sino que exige respetar la igualdad de derechos, la diversidad cultural y a la autonomía política de los pueblos de la tierra como es necesario para preservar la paz mundial. Una lectura (...) sistemática de las tesis de Kant sobre el colonialismo permiten afirmar que el suyo es un cosmopolitismo republicano y no uno de mínimos, lo que abre nuevas perspectivas a la investigación de la filosofía política, moral y jurídica kantiana. (shrink)