The Ethical Commonwealth in History
Peace-making as the Moral Vocation of Humanity

Explores how Kant's account of religion provides the church with a role in establishing a cosmopolitan order of peace.

Philip J. Rossi (Author)

9781108438636, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 July 2019

75 pages
23 x 15.3 x 0.4 cm, 0.1 kg

The 'ethical commonwealth', the central social element in Kant's account of religion, provides the church, as 'the moral people of God', with a role in establishing a cosmopolitan order of peace. This role functions within an interpretive realignment of Kant's critical project that articulates its central concern as anthropological: critically disciplined reason enables humanity to enact peacemaking as its moral vocation in history. Within this context, politics and religion are not peripheral elements in the critical project. They are, instead, complementary social modalities in which humanity enacts its moral vocation to bring lasting peace among all peoples.

1. Introduction – politics, religion, and the scope of Kant's critical project
2. Critique as anthropology – the duality of human reason in the world
3. Critique and cosmopolitanism – the anthropological shaping of religion and politics
4. The ethical commonwealth – social imperative for cosmopolitan peacemaking.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Western philosophy: Enlightenment [HPCD1]