En europeisk kosmopolit : En idéhistorisk studie av Immanuel Kants Om den eviga freden och dess verkningshistoria

• This dissertation, a contribution to the history of ideas, is a study of Immanuel Kant’s 1795 monograph Zum ewigen Frieden (Perpetual Peace) and its effective history. The intention is to show how this particular work has been formed, read, discussed and interpreted for about 200 years. Considering the attention the work received on its bicentennial anniversary in comparison with the attention it had received before that, there is a good reason for studying it in a long perspective. This book consists of three parts. In part I, the focus is directed on the situation in which Kant wrote Perpetual Peace. The peace treaty tradition and the view of war and peace are dealt with as a background for the ideas and the reception of Kant’s peace treaty. The form and content of Perpetual Peace are discussed as well as its relation to Kant’s critical philosophy. Part II focuses on the principle ideas in Perpetual Peace: how a peaceful society founded on principles of rights is possible. Kant’s solution is to suggest a certain internal order in society, which should be complemented with an external. In my analysis of his republicanism, federalism, and cosmopolitanism, I emphasise Kant’s dependence on stoic ideals, but also on the French revolutionist Emmanuel Sieyès. Part III, finally, is an attempt to apply Gadamer’s concept of effective history on the large varieties of readings of Perpetual Peace over time. One of the interpreters was the German philosopher Karl Vorländer, who as an ideological advisor for the German socialist party tried to concretise Kant’s ideas of perpetual peace. His view of Kant is far from the ideals in Wilhelminian Germany, as well as from the cosmopolitan ideals appearing in the 1990s. These quite different interpretations of Perpetual Peace indicate that it makes sense to use such a concept as effective history. In my discussion all these aspects are of importance.

• När Immanuel Kant år 1795 lät publicera sin lilla skrift Om den eviga freden väckte den stor uppmärksamhet över hela Europa och översattes snart till flera språk. Hur kom det sig att den i samband med tvåhundraårsjubileet 1995 åter var så populär att flera av världens tongivande filosofer diskuterade den och skrev artiklar om den? Nutida tänkare lockas dock av andra idéer än de som engagerade Kants samtida. Det är främst idén om världsmedborgarskapet som på senare tid har fått förnyad aktualitet. En av grunderna för Kants ”eviga fred” är att stater ska organiseras inbördes enligt vissa principer för att sedan bilda en sammanslutning. Hur kan det inspirera i vår tids Europa? Genom att studera fredsskriftens tillkomst och de reaktioner den utsattes för, inte bara omedelbart vid utgivningen eller år 1995 utan även i exempelvis det wilhelminska Tyskland och under första världskriget, framkommer dess betydelse ur ett verkningshistoriskt perspektiv.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Idé- och lärdomshistoria (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- History of Ideas (hsv//eng)

Keyword

History of philosophy

history of ideas

Vorländer.

Kant

stoicism

effective history

enlightenment

18th century

Europe

citizenship

federalism

perpetual peace

cosmopolitanism

peace

modern history (up to circa 1800)

Filosofins historia

idéhistoria

Tidig modern historia (till ca. 1800)

History of science and ideas

Idé- o lärdomshistoria

history of ideas

History of philosophy

Vorländer.

Kant

stoicism

effective history

enlightenment

18th century

Europe

citizenship

federalism

perpetual peace

cosmopolitanism

peace

Filosofins historia

idéhistoria

Modern history (up to circa 1800)

Tidig modern historia (till ca. 1800)

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

dok (subject category)