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Immanuel Kant

Kant’s Political Philosophy

Matt Qvortrup explains how the Enlightenment’s leading philosopher went looking for a bit of peace.

The newspaper Gothaische gelehrte Zeitungen was slightly sarcastic when it wrote about Immanuel Kant in 1784, “It is a favourite idea of Herr Professor Kant that the ultimate goal of the human race is the establishment of a perfect constitution.” But in fairness, Kant did get rather carried away when he wrote about politics. “It is so sweet to dream up state constitutions that meet the demands of reason,” he wrote almost wistfully (Conflict of the Faculties, 1794, p.159).

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was clearly obsessed with politics, especially in the later stage of his life.

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