Name: Ethan Nelson
Major: Philosophy
Graduation Year: December 2019
Faculty Supervisor: Carlos Pereira Di Salvo
Project Title: Freedom, Despotism, and the World Republic: A Realist Interpretation of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Project
Abstract:
It has often been argued on Kantian grounds that the creation of a world republic is the best, if not the only, method for achieving an international system of equal and reciprocal freedom. In a way, the foundation of a world republic appears to follow naturally from the rest of Kant’s political philosophy, but interpreters of Kant have often struggled to make sense of his varied and seemingly contradictory stances concerning a world government. Kant simultaneously advocates the necessity of a world state in order to achieve perpetual peace, while admitting that facts of human anthropology and limitations of the political structures of states preclude such a possibility. The only attainable form of world governance on his view is a juridical league of nations maintaining a cessation of hostilities. In this paper, I wish to expand on Kant’s realist apprehensions concerning a world state. A federal world republic is not in principle unachievable and such an institution might even create an international condition of right; but due to the realities of human nature, the vast inequalities in wealth and power between states, and international trends such as globalization, fragmentation, and differentiation, an ideal world republic is unrealizable. I focus on two main problems posed by the structure of a federal world republic: first, a cosmopolitan world state would inevitably interfere with the internal affairs of states, violating the rights of states and therefore the rights of their citizens as well; and second, the form of a federal world republic would be inadequate for governing a rapidly changing global society. Indeed, the structure of the world state would be radically unjust because it would favor powerful states, there would be no guarantee that human rights would be protected, and it would do little to ameliorate global inequality.