Immanuel Kant

Author of more than 30 Books

IDEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY ON

I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S " I T I S I M P O S S I B L E T O T H I N K O F A N Y T H I N G AT
ALL IN THE WORLD OR INDEED EVEN BEYOND
I T, T H AT C O U L D B E C O N S I D E R E D G O O D
W I T H O U T L I M I TAT I O N E X C E P T A G O O D W I L L "
 Biography
• Born April 22, 1724, Königsberg, Prussia [now Kaliningrad, Russia]—died February 12, 1804,
Königsberg.
• A German philosopher whose comprehensive and systematic work in epistemology (the theory of
knowledge), ethics, and aesthetics greatly influenced all subsequent philosophy, especially the
various schools of Kantianism and idealism.
• Kant was one of the foremost thinkers of the Enlightenment and arguably one of the greatest
philosophers of all time. In him were subsumed new trends that had begun with
the rationalism (stressing reason) of René Descartes and the empiricism (stressing experience)
of Francis Bacon. He thus inaugurated a new era in the development of philosophical thought.
 Trivia Attack!
Did Immanuel Kant get married?
- He had a sense of humor, and there were
women in his life, although he never married.
On occasion, Kant drank so much red wine he
was unable to find his way home, the books
claim. 
 Kant's Philosophical
Beliefs

• Kant believed that there was a supreme principle of morality, and he

referred to it as The Categorical Imperative.
• Kant's theory is an example of a Deontological Moral Theory–
An ethical theory that uses rules to distinguish right from wrong.
• His moral philosophy is a Philosophy of Freedom. Without human
freedom, thought Kant, moral appraisal and moral responsibility would
be impossible. Kant believes that if a person could not act otherwise,
then his or her act can have no moral worth.
 Kant's Political Views on
International Relations
• Given the lack of international institutions, Kant says, states must be considered to
be in a state of nature relative to one another.
• Before the creation of some such union, states do have a right to go to war against
other states if another state threatens it or actively aggresses against it. But any
declaration of war ought to be confirmed by the people “as co-legislating members
of a state”. Rulers who wage war without such consent are using their subjects as
property, as mere means, rather than treating them as ends in themselves. 
• Once war has been declared, states are obligated to conduct the
war under principles that leave open the possibility of an eventual
league of states. Actions that undermine future trust between
states, such as the use of assassination, are prohibited.
• States are obligated to leave this state of nature among states and
enter into a union of states.
• In his essay “Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of
View”, he takes the basis of his claims for historical progress to be the
culmination of the human ability to reason, which, as a natural property
of human beings, must be worked out to perfection in the species. 
• He argues that continuous wars will eventually lead rulers to recognize
the benefits of peaceful negotiation. They will gradually increase the
freedoms of their citizens, because freer citizens are economically more
productive and hence make the state stronger in its
international dealings. 
 Toward Perpetual
Peace
• Kant argues that such widespread freedom of action can exist only in a republic, by which
he means a system of government that respects the rights of private property and contract,
that divides legislative, executive, and judicial power, and that prohibits proprietary and
hereditary rulers, that is, rulers who regard their dominion and their office as private
property, to be passed on to heirs of their own rather than the people's choice and
augmented or diminished as they see fit.
• The stable peace can come only when all the nations of the earth are such republics,
governed by citizens who see the security of their property obtaining only under the
universal rule of law rather than by proprietary rulers who can always see a neighboring
state as a potential addition to their own personal property. 
Conclusion
• Kant advocated a cosmopolitan
community building
perspective of peace and
international relations that
considered issues that are now
significant topics of debate
such as state sovereignty and
unequal access to resources. 
Group Members

• Kate Wynsleth C. Ordinario

• Lyneth M. Garcia

• Robert Dymer D. Malcat

Links and
References
• https://www.routledge.com/Kant-and-International-
Relations-Theory-Cosmopolitan-Community-
building/Ion/p/book/9781138812451
• https://www.e-ir.info/2018/08/31/review-kants-
international-relations/#:~:text=According%20to
%20Molloy%2C%20Kant's%20International,both
%20natural%20and%20moral%20laws
• https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-social-
political/?
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