K

Kant

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was a German philosopher of enormous influ-
ence in every area of philosophical, political and moral thought. In political
terms he is especially important as a writer in theEnlightenmenttradition
and as a successor toRousseauand an influence onHegel. No very specific
political doctrine can be derived from Kant, but without his intellectual
groundbreaking many modern political philosophies, including not only
Marxismbut alsoexistentialism, would be poorer. In his own times, and
in terms of his own orientation, we should probably see Kant as a liberal, but
the complexity and power of his thought is relevant to a far wider range of
theories.
Two of Kant’s arguments are especially significant. One is that all moral and
political judgements should be ‘universal’, that is, made according to general
moral or policy rules rather than solely with regard to the particulars of an
individual case. This is the element ofliberalism, supporting as it does the idea
of the rule of law. Another is that he was acutely aware of the way our concepts
and categories determine our social thought, and even the categories into
which we distinguish the world. This suggestion that our social perception is
not autonomous observation of what actually exists in absolute terms, but is
conditioned by what wethinkexists, has deeply influenced the development of
the theory ofideology, especially Marx’s reinterpretation of Hegel and the
thinking of Marxists such asMannheim. Kant wrote relatively little on
practical politics, but a major exception is his essay on international relations
(IR),Perpetual Peace(1795). In this he argues for a form of international society,
and introduces for the first time the idea that international justice requires a
more or less democratic form of government inside each participating society.
It remains extremely influential in the rather small body of theoretical works
concerning international relations. Indeed a major tenet of modern IR theory,
that democracies do not make war on each other, can be traced directly to this
essay.