Political Writings

The original edition of Kant: Political Writings was first published in 1970, and has long been established as the principal English-language edition of this important body of writing. In this new, expanded edition, two important texts illustrating Kants’s view of history are included for the first time: his reviews of Herder’s Ideas on the Philosophy of The History of Mankind and Conjectures on the Beginning of Human History; as well as the essay What is Orientation in Thinking. In addition to a general introduction assessing Kant’s political thought in terms of his fundamental principles of politics, this edition also contains such useful student aids as notes on the texts, a comprehensive bibliography, and a new postscript, looking at some of the principal issues in Kantian scholarship that have arisen since first publication.

Preface to the second edition; Preface to the first edition; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. Idea for a universal history with a cosmopolitan purpose; 3. An answer to the question: ‘what is enlightenment?’; 4. On the common saying: ‘this may be true in theory, but it does not apply in practice’; 5. Perpetual peace: a philosophical sketch; 6. The metaphysics of morals; 7. The contest of faculties; 8. Appendix; 9. Reviews of Herder’s ideas on the philosophy of the history of mankind; 10. Conjectures on the beginning of human history; 11. Introduction to what is orientation in thinking?; 12. What is orientation in thinking?; Notes to the text; Bibliography; Index of names; Index of subjects.