CEVAP:

Immanuel Kant as a philosopher of the Enlightenment on the other hand argued that human reason one day would be mature enough to establish a world society of harmony and peace. Kant believed in human dignity and that justice could be secured through a universal political order. He is a precursor of liberal internationalism (idealism), and more contemporary schools like the democratic peace research program. However, it is argued that some of his ideas conflict “to a certain extent” with bases of classical liberalism. For instance, Kant argued that rational capacities of humans could overcome both traditions and the passions. Kantian understanding of the government was more authoritarian when compared with that of classical liberals due to his argument that state would determine the individual property rights (van de Haar, 2009, 37-38).

Kant was influential on the liberal internationalists who were more optimist, idealist about the future course of global politics. Kant argued that a league or federation of republics (representative democracies) will learn ways to avoid wars. The arguments of liberal writers like Kant, Cobden and Schumpeter show that it is the “nature” of the state and society, or the nature of the regime, the ideas they are based on, that determine the likelihood of aggression and likelihood to resort to war (Viotti & Kauppi, 2012, 134-135).