"Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose" or "The Idea of a Universal History on a Cosmopolitical Plan" (german: Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht) is a 1784 essay by Prussian philosopher

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

(1724–1804), a lecturer in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

and

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

Königsberg University Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

Overview

The essay was published as Kant was gaining repute as a philosopher following the publication of his revolutionary treatise on epistemology, '' The Critique of Pure Reason'' (1781) and preceding his critique of ethical theory, ''

Critique of Practical Reason The ''Critique of Practical Reason'' (german: Kritik der praktischen Vernunft) is the second of Immanuel Kant's three critiques, published in 1788. It follows on from Kant's first critique, the '' Critique of Pure Reason'' and deals with his mo ...

'' (1788). "Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose" embroiled Kant in controversy due to the political implications of its critique of his contemporary

Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried von Herder ( , ; 25 August 174418 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the Enlightenment, ''Sturm und Drang'', and Weimar Classicism. Biography Born in Mohrun ...

. The essay proceeds by way of nine propositions through which Kant seeks to prove his claim that rational and moral

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...

will inevitably defeat the compulsions of self-interested

individualism Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...

. Kant seeks to achieve this by advancing a hierarchical account of development of

human history Human history, also called world history, is the narrative of humanity's past. It is understood and studied through anthropology, archaeology, genetics, and linguistics. Since the invention of writing, human history has been studied throug ...

. Tully, James. "The Kantian Idea of Europe" in In writing from the perspective of a

universal history A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...

, Kant valorizes an unrealized future state (though he is aware, however, of the problem of theorizing without empirical basis, recognizing the appearance of irrationality that such an enterprise exhibits and criticizing Herder for extracting conclusions from speculative psychologizing).Mah, Harold, "The Age of Herder, Kant, and Hegel", in Kant classifies the constitutional republics of contemporary Western Europe—marked as they were by federalism, status-seeking, individualism and a degree of moral and cultural maturity—as belonging to an advanced, yet still intermediate, stage of development, judging them to be ''civilized'' but not thoroughly ''moral''. All other societies are deemed inferior and judged according to the benchmark of European nation-states. Kant proposes that the European nations were tending towards statehood in a federation characterized by a universalist and

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

moral culture—a historical end-state also approached (albeit at a slower pace) by those inferior non-European societies, defined as they still were by the embrace of faith.

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External links

*
Idea For A Universal History With A Cosmopolitan Purpose
at the Marxist Internet Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Idea For A Universal History With A Cosmopolitan Purpose 1784 essays Philosophy essays Essays by Immanuel Kant Cosmopolitanism

Overview

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