Kant, Eternal peace - AFSV00438
|
|
|
||
|
Gregg Lambert, Ph.D., Dean’s Professor Humanities, Syracuse University
Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences “War is the father of all and the king of all and has revealed that the ones are gods, and the others are humans, and has made the ones slaves and the others free.” Attributed to “Heraclitus, the wise” (D64), Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies. Seminar Description: This seminar will address what I will provisionally call the” three estates of peace”: 1. the state of temporary peace following the conclusion of a war or “treaty,” along with the inevitable distribution of wealth and territories between victors and losers; 2. the state of a peace at the “end of history” dreamed of by revolutionaries (but also by “theoretical philosophers” who continue to play “the great game of revolution”); finally, 3. the state that might approximate what Kant ironically called the philosopher’s “sweet dream of peace,” which remains only “an idea of reason.” Nevertheless, as a practical problem of politics, the idea of a final peace has been historically determined by two absolutely opposing ends, creating an “antinomy” in the idea of peace itself: either the state of “peace” that is brought about by the genocide or forced subjugation of a historical “people,“ or the state of “security” enforced by the Universal State or by the historical-political alliance of nation-states. Although the idea of perpetual peace is not usually associated with the historical and philosophical traditions of Marxism, Marx and Engel’s earlier appropriation of the teleological course of revolutionary History from Hegel, a teleology that promises the overturning of capitalist society and the “withering away of the state-form itself, represents a modern utopian myth of perpetual peace. In this short seminar we will interrogate this modern myth of a final peace established after the end of History by placing it in a dialectical relationship with the Kantian idea of perpetual peace from his 1795 treatise Toward [To] Perpetual Peace (Zum ewigen Frieden. Ein philosophischer Entwurf), as well as later political writings published before his death. Schedule and Assignments: The seminar will meet on Mondays 14:10-15:50 between 7 October and 25 November. Weekly “five-minute papers” will be explained on the first night of the seminar and will be expected in response to each week’s assigned reading and seminar discussion. A final project presentation (via Zoom) on one of the twenty-three current wars or major civil conflict employing the preliminary and definitive articles from Zum ewigen Frieden to propose a plan for “perpetual peace.” (Examples of student power point presentations given at Syracuse University will be provided via Dropbox. Students should sign up for a Dropbox account to receive seminar materials and readings.) Readings (weekly) 1. 7-10: Introduction to the Seminar; A Reading of Heraclitus, the Wise 2. 14-10: Plato, The Laws, Bk. 3-4 3. 21-10: Hobbes, Leviathan, Intro, Ch 13 4. 28-10: Spinoza, Political Treatise 5. 4-11: Kant, Toward Perpetual Peace 6. 11-11: Kant Toward Perpetual Peace (cont.) 7. 18-11: Kant, “An Old Question Raised Again: Is the Human Race Constantly Progressing?” 8. 25-11: Hegel, from Introduction to the Philosophy of History Poslední úprava: Mokrejšová Eva, Mgr. (13.09.2024)
|