This paper is a historical reconstruction of Immanuel Kant’s political philosophy, focusing primarily upon his “idea” of universal history. For Kant, the concept of history is the theoretical basis for his belief in the possibility of political progress. By political progress, he understands the development of the global political conditions necessary for the actualization of human freedom. These conditions amount to a universal cosmopolitan condition and the establishment of perpetual peace. Kant outlines that for this condition to arise, there must be a mechanism to establish its development. The mechanism he identifies is a teleological theory of human history which will guarantee the formation of a league of nations and universal republican government. For this reason, some commentators have viewed Kant’s theory of history as “pre-critical” and incompatible with his broader systematic philosophy. By contrast, I argue in conjunction with a number of other recent commentators that Kant’s idea of universal history is in fact compatible with his critical enterprise if we understand history as a “regulative” rather than “constitutive” concept. The relevance of this reconstructive endeavor is found in the overwhelming anxiety of modern discourse surrounding the possibility of political progress. Many contemporary political thinkers believe there exists a “crisis” of modernity, a newfound “post-modernity,” or a modern “legitimation” crisis. Many of their concerns are connected with the collapse of a logically consistent and life-affirming conception of universalism. Within this context, I hope to explicate the origins of this concept as elaborated in the writings of Immanuel Kant in order to provide greater clarity to these discourses.
