Kant on Politics and History: The Later View

• In Event: Politics and Particularity from Kant to Heidegger

Abstract

Kant’s political thought has recently emerged as a topic of major scholarly concern, after many years of general neglect in the English-speaking world. Much of the research that has flourished in the most recent years has clustered around particular themes, such as revolution, citizenship, and international law; while other work has addressed with new vigor the place of history and politics within Kant’s overall critical scheme. Instead, I will view Kant’s late approach to both politics and history through a somewhat narrower, and still largely neglected lens: namely, Kant’s own use of the term “politics” [Politik] both generally and, in later years, as a term of art. Kant’s understanding of politics in the latter sense sheds revealing light not only on his late concept of republicanism and accompanying two-tiered strategy for bending the arc of history “toward the better” [7: 79], but also on the evolving role of “politics” within Kant’s overall critical system.

Author

• Susan Meld Shell, Boston College