Perpetual Peace, and Other Essays on Politics, History, and Morals (HPC Classics Series) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Ted Humphrey (Translator)
Key Phrases: free rationality, cosmopolitan right, youngest day, Critique of Pure Reason, New York, Translator's Introduction (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Hackett Pub Co (February 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0915145472
• ISBN-13: 978-0915145478
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #130,728 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice, affordable edition, December 19, 1999

By	A Citizen "steveheikkila" (the Cosmopolis.) - See all my reviews

It is very useful to have a Kant's shorter essays on political philosophy and the philosophy of history collected in a single volume. While a larger, more comprehensive collection, edited by Hans Reiss, is published by Cambridge Univ. Press under the title *Kant: Political Writings*, this smaller Hackett version is nicely translated and much more affordable. Hackett Publ. Co. in general has been very kind to philosophy. They deserve your patronage.

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful, May 31, 2009

By	R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

A nice, inexpensive edition of some of Kant's notable essays including his famous short essay An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? and To Perpetual Peace. The latter and the Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Intent are some of Kant's notable political writings. Generally more accessible than Kant's major critical works and sometimes written vividly, not a quality associated generally with Kant. The political writings feature Kant's emphasis on grounding in his moral philosophy and a contractual approach. To Perpetual Peace includes Kant's famous and to this point vindicated prediction that properly constituted Republics (though not direct democracies, which he sees as tending to despotism) are likely to form peaceful federal relationships with each other. All well worth reading, and also an interesting comparison with the work of John Rawls, much influenced by Kant's general approach. To Perpetual Peace is clearly the direct inspiration and model for Rawls' last book, The Law of Peoples.

Also included are the essays Speculative Beginning of Human History and The End of All Things, which are interesting and sometimes obscure combinations of philosophical speculation and scriptural exegesis.

Good footnotes and introductory essay.

1 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It's no Hegel, February 19, 2006

By	Mr. Steiner (New York) - See all my reviews

Find out how we will achieve peace through war and continual conflict. This is an important, though troubling work of political philosophy by the great thinker, though it is mediocre when compared to the historical dialectics of Hegel. For evidence of Kant's racism/ethnocentrism, read the section on Cosmopolitanism, in which Kant effectively excludes all humans outside of the Ancient Greece and the West from the human project. Well, one can't assume a great transcendental thinker will also be enlightened in politics; sad considering the "Enlightenment" is one of Kant's primary concerns in the book.