PLURALITNÍ SVĚT STÁTŮ A VIZE GLOBÁLNÍ JEDNOTY. KE KANTOVĚ A HABERMASOVĚ VERZI KOSMOPOLITISMU

• Authors: Michala Lysoňková

Title variants

EN

Pluralistic world of states and a vision of global unity: Toward Kant’s and Habermas’ versions of cosmopolitanism

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

The article deals with the cosmopolitanism of Immanuel Kant and Jürgen Habermas. In his perpetual peace project, Kant endeavoured to overcome the modern state system which has been prone to war. However, this project is confusing due to Kant’s contradictory attitude to a world state. Although the pluralist system of sovereign states can be securely surmounted only by universal “Völkerstaat” or “Weltrepublik”, these political entities raise concerns about unification and despotism, originally connected with a universal monarchy. The similar problem becomes apparent also in Habermas’ version of cosmopolitanism. Even though Habermas ultimately argues that the world state is to be avoided, his conception is driven to it by the universalism of human rights, which are directed against political particularism, as well as by the politics of peace, requiring the establishment of an effective power at the supranational level of a global political system. Furthermore, in this multilevel political system its lowest level, i.e. the level of nation states is suppressed. Kant’s and Habermas’ contradictory positions reflect a more fundamental tension between plurality and unity which affects modern cosmopolitanism, frequently criticized as anti-pluralistic. Hence, the aim of the article is to clarify contradictions in Kant’s and Habermas’ conceptions in order to shed some critical light on modern cosmopolitanism as such.

Keywords

EN

COSMOPOLITANISM; MODERN STATE; WORLD STATE; PLURALITY; IMMANUEL KANT; JÜRGEN HABERMAS

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Filozofia (Philosophy)
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 70
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 81 – 93

Contributors

author

Michala Lysoňková

• Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, Praha, Czech Republic