Kant and his time — the essay Toward Perpetual Peace against the background of the French Revolution and ensuing wars

Abstract

This article considers the events and ideas that served as a background to the creation of the essay Towards Perpetual Peace, as well as the earliest reviews of it. The author pays special attention to the objections voiced by Kant’s student Friedrich Gentz who turned from the advocate of his teacher’s ideas into his opponent. The conclusion offers an attempt to envisage the philosophers’ reactions to the current state of international politics.

Keywords

• Kant
• Gentz
• perpetual peace
• democratic war
• republic
• French Revolutionary Wars
• international organizations