Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) wrote a number of essays touching on the topics of war and peace. This entry covers his most famous work on peace, Zum ewigen Frieden: Ein philosophischer Entwurf(Toward Eternal Peace: A Philosophical Outline), often translated as “Toward Perpetual Peace,” first published in 1795. Some speculate that Kant was moved to write his essay because of the Peace of Basel, which included a peace treaty between France and Prussia on April 5, 1795, that allowed France to annex much of the Rhineland and proposed calling for a pan-European peace conference. In reaction to the principles of the treaty and hopeful of a more peaceful political climate, Kant may have been moved to publish his ideas for achieving lasting peace. Kant offered his essay to his publisher in August 1795.
Kant’s is the most sophisticated peace plan to come out of the Enlightenment. It is clear from Kant’s Lectures on Ethics and his later essays relating to war and peace that he was familiar with...
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References
Kant’s Writings
Kant I (1971) Kant’s political writings, ed. Reiss H, (trans: Nisbet HB). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Kant I (1983) Perpetual peace and other essays (trans: Humphrey T). Hackett Pub, Indianapolis/Cambridge
Kant I (1999) Metaphysical elements of justice, 2nd edn. (trans: Ladd J). Hackett Pub, Indianapolis/Cambridge
Commentaries: Books
Friedrich CJ (1948) Inevitable peace. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Gallie WB (1979) Philosophers of peace and war. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Kant I (2006) Toward perpetual peace and other writings on politics, peace, and history, with essays by: Waldron J, Doyle MW, Wood AW, ed. Kleingeld P, (trans: Colclasure DL). Yale University Press, New Haven/London
Tesón FR (1998) A philosophy of international law. Westview Press, Boulder
Tuck R (1999) The rights of war and peace: political thought and the international order from Grotius to Kant. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Articles
Bourke J (1942) Kant’s doctrine of ‘perpetual peace’. Philosophy 17(68):324–333
Davis KR (1991) Kantian ‘publicity’ and political justice. Hist Philos Q 8(4):409–421
Hocking WE (1924) Immanuel Kant and the foreign policies of nations. Advoc Peace Justice 86(7):414–424
Hurrell A (1990) Kant and the Kantian paradigm in international relations. Rev Int Stud 16(3):183–205
Waltz KN (1962) Kant, liberalism, and war. Am Polit Sci Rev 56(2):331–340
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Scheid, D.E. (2011). Perpetual Peace: Kant. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_763
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