| Abstract: | Throughout the whole of Kant’s cosmopolitanism – a guiding principle underlying his entire system – as defined in his idea of “philosophy in a cosmopolitan sense”, there lies a fundamental ambiguity, one that we might call the cosmopolitical problem: on the one hand, the word “cosmopolitanism” comports a political meaning, on the other, it seems nothing more than a moral stance in Kant. Trying to address this problem, departing from a reconstruction of a Kantian definition of politics, we arrive at a more specific sense of the cosmo-political, namely, the idea of the Kingdom of Virtue, as presented in his Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. Besides the consequences of this idea upon Kant’s cosmopolitan principle, we can also observe how it gives sense to his idea of culture – more specifically, of cultural difference – as the bearer of a specifically political freedom, namely, the right to differ. Returning to the idea of the Kingdom of Virtue, we conclude that it suggests an alternative approach to cosmopolitanism. Thus understood, cosmopolitanism operates through – culturally developed – mentalities, not through common deliberation, i.e., politics proper, but it still remains the par excellence scene of the cosmo-political.
This research has been carried out within the research project financed by UEFISCDI, contract number 261 /August 05 2010; project manager: Áron Telegdi-Csetri. |
Ph.D., Lic. Theses
