Kant's Doctrine of “Perpetual Peace”

John Bourke

doi:10.1017/S0031819100003703

Kant's Doctrine of “Perpetual Peace”

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2009

John Bourke

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There are two main questions which it is possible to ask about war. The first is, whether it is inevitable; the second, whether it is desirable. The former question is one of fact, the latter one of value. In the discussions of ordinary conversation the two are frequently-confused and obscured; arguments to prove war desirable may be heard based upon the supposed fact of its inevitability, and conversely. It is worth while considering how the two are related.

Type: Research Article
Information: Philosophy , Volume 17 , Issue 68 , November 1942 , pp. 324 - 333

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819100003703 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1942

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^{page 324 note 1} The further question, by what right we pronounce anything inevitable, is not here relevant.

^{page 324 note 2} With Heracleitus, Clausewitz, Treitschke, and others.

^{page 325 note 1} There is a good little English edition by MissSmith, Mary Campbell, (Perpetual Peace, Allen & Unwin, 1903Google Scholar, reprinted later) with a full and instructive Introduction, to which I am indebted, and a very readable translation which I have here used in the passages quoted.

^{page 325 note 2} Perpetual Peace, Appendix II, last paragraph.

^{page 326 note 1} Op. cit., First Section, Article 4.

^{page 326 note 2} Op. cit., Second Section, Article 2.

^{page 326 note 3} Critique of Judgment, I, Bk. ii, 28.

^{page 326 note 4} On the Radical Evil in Human Nature, III, note (see Kant's Theory of Ethics, ed. by Abbott, T. K., p. 341Google Scholar). Note that, while Kant says that war takes some bad men away and makes many more others bad, he does not suggest that any is morally improved thereby.

^{page 326 note 5} Perpetual Peace, Second Section, Article 2.

^{page 327 note 1} Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, 47Google Scholar.

^{page 327 note 2} Op. cit., 57.

^{page 327 note 3} Loc. cit.

^{page 328 note 1} Perpetual Peace, Second Section, Article I.

^{page 328 note 2} Loc. cit.

^{page 328 note 3} “That man is free who is conscious of himself as the author of the law which he obeys” (T. H. Green).

^{page 328 note 4} Kant seems to use the term “republican” in a wider sense than is usual now. His two conditions of “republicanism” can be quite as consistently fulfilled under a limited monarchy as under an elected president.

^{page 329 note 1} Perpetual Peace, Second Section, Article 2, opening words.

^{page 329 note 2} See in this connection the suggestions made in Curtis, Lionel's Civitas Dei (1937)Google Scholar and Streit, Clement's Union Now (1939)Google Scholar.

^{page 329 note 3} Perpetual Peace, loc. cit., later.

^{page 329 note 4} The Prince, chap, xviii.

^{page 329 note 5} Perpetual Peace, Second Section, Article 2.

^{page 329 note 6} Loc. cit.

^{page 330 note 1} Perpetual Peace, Appendix II, 2.

^{page 330 note 2} Op. cit., First Section.

^{page 330 note 3} Gestiftet.

^{page 331 note 1} Perpetual Peace, Second Section, Article 2, par. 4.

^{page 332 note 1} Perpetual Peace, earlier.

^{page 332 note 2} Loc. cit. Also Appendix II, Section 2.

^{page 332 note 3} Loc. cit.

^{page 332 note 4} Loc. cit., par. 1.

^{page 332 note 5} Loc. cit., last paragraph. The notion is again discussed in the Metaphysical Principles of Law (Part II, 61).

^{page 333 note 1} “The essential of such a system is a collective preponderance of strength of those who are loyal to it over those who may assail it” (SirSalter, A. in Political Quarterly, vol. vii, No. 4, p. 467Google Scholar, in an article on “Reform of the League”).

^{page 333 note 2} Perpetual Peace, First Section, Article 4.

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