WHY DOES PEACE STILL PREVAIL?

Essay

Authors

  • Otfried HÖFFE

Keywords:

Immanuel Kant, war, peace, justice, state, democracy

Abstract

The most influential thinker of the Age of Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant, is the author of the treatise on war and peace, “To Eternal Peace”, which is still unsurpassed in the realm of political and legal philosophy. Even today, this work helps to better understand the problem of the current war, as well as to answer the radical question: why should there be peace between people, and not war? Based on the thoughts of Kant, who builds his theory of peace primarily on reasonable, “reciprocal” egoism, the author of the essay makes the following conclusions in response to this Kant’s question. First, war not only destroys people’s well-being. It does violate justice. Secondly, the state, as an institution characterized by sovereignty, does not belong to anyone. Therefore, no one, like the president of Russia as of today, can demand, as he is doing, from the president of Ukraine to hand over the country or some part of it to him. Third, authoritarian states like Russia must allow their people what is called democracy. Namely, to recognize basic human rights in combination with the separation of public powers so that citizens could be able to act and work without intimidation and corruption.

Author Biography

Otfried HÖFFE

Professor, Head of the Research Center of Political Philosophy at the Eberghard and Karl University of Tübingen, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, Tübingen (Deutschland), 72074

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Abstract views: 56

Published

2022-11-03

How to Cite

HÖFFE O. . (2022). WHY DOES PEACE STILL PREVAIL? : Essay. Filosofska Dumka, (3), 111–114. Retrieved from https://dumka.philosophy.ua/index.php/fd/article/view/621

Issue

No. 3 (2022): Philosophical thought

Section

TOPIC OF THE ISSUE

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